Liquor license resale bill passes

BOISE, Idaho (KIFI) - On Thursday in Boise, the Idaho Senate passed a bill to prohibit the re-sale of new liquor licenses that become available. 

The bill would also allow existing licenses to be sold once. 

Senator Jim Guthrie of McCammon sponsored the bill. 

He says the method for distributing liquor licenses is not working. 

"Consider this, once a quota license that costs $750 comes off the list and then becomes eligible for sale it could be worth a quarter-million dollars or more. And some as much as $350,000 and if you do the math that is more than 450 times than the license fee of $750," Guthrie said.

Those who opposed the bill feel it will hurt the current business license owner looking to resale down the road. 

That's because the value may not be as much as when they bought the license previously. 

The bill now goes to the House of Representatives.