Iowa Becomes First State To Permanently Legalize Alcohol To-Go

Iowa governor, Kim Reynolds, announced that she had signed a bill allowing the bars to proceed to sell alcoholic drinks for take-out and delivery for consumption away from their premises.

The Hawkeye State is currently the first in the country to allow bars to sell alcohol to-go. The to-go service was supposed to be a temporary means of helping outlets survive the COVID-19.

The legislation that went through recently got massive support from the statehouse. The decision to make cocktails to-go provided much-needed stability for restaurants and bars as they started to recover from the lockdowns.

According to the New York Post, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States was enthused that the state lawmakers green-lighted the legislation.

Dale Szyndrowski, the vice president of DISCUS state government relations, said Iowa’s hospitality business suffered a lot from the economic effects of COVID-19.

The organization thanked Governor Reynolds and the legislature for supporting the local businesses and their workers by making the Hawkeye state, the first to make a temporary to-go measure permanent, Fox News reported. Iowa is leading the way, and it will be a model for other states that want innovative means of boosting the hospitality industry.

The organization said that over 30 states and Washington D.C are presently allowing restaurants and bars to sell alcoholic and bottled drinks. There are particular jurisdictions such as Florida, Ohio and Oklahoma that are already considering making it permanent.

Several states have already begun reasonable measures to open the economies despite the rising numbers of victims from the pandemic. New York has also temporarily given the go-ahead for premises to sell alcohol to-go during the crisis, but it has not yet been set into law.

The decision was given multiple short-term extensions and some legislators have said it should be extended for some years to help the hospitality industry recover.