The cost of renewing a liquor license in Oregon will go up this year. In some cases, it’s the first increase since at least 1949.
That year, Harry Truman was president, Wiley E. Coyote made his cartoon debut,and Perry Como spent weeks atop the Billboard charts.
That year, it cost $100 to renew an Oregon off-premise liquor license.
It still does. Until October, that is.
That’s when a fee increase takes effect for the first time in 70 years. The Oregon Liquor Control Commission says new types of licenses have been created since 1949, but the cost of a standard license to sell alcohol in stores ($100) or at bars and restaurants ($400) has not budged in all that time.
OLCC spokesman Matthew Van Sickle said the current fees could very well be even older. The agency's records are a bit muddled that far back. He said a staffer was able to find official rule books from as early as 1949, which listed the same fees that are still in effect today. But it's possible the fees were in place before that year.
The fees are set by Oregon lawmakers, who voted this spring to double the cost of most of the state’s liquor licenses. The agency says the old fees were among the lowest in the nation.
In some cases, the new fees will still leave Oregon far below the national average. For instance, according to the OLCC, the national average for an "on-premises" license is $1,435 per year. Oregon's new fee will be $800. However, the new on-premises fee will place Oregon 24th in the nation when listed on a state-by-state basis. On-premises licenses are typically held by restaurants, bars and other establishments that sell alcohol intended to be consumed on site.
The higher fees are expected to generate an additional $4.5 million per year for the state. Legislative analysts characterized the measure as a "cost recovery" bill, as opposed to a tax increase. Some of the money goes to cities and counties to help with enforcement of liquor laws.
The agency says an average of 454 new liquor licenses have been issued in Oregon each year over the past decade.
