New York state’s keg registration law expired a few weeks before students left for break, so this will be the first semester since 2002 that students will be able to rent a keg without a mandatory deposit.

The registration law, in effect since 2003, expired on Nov. 22 with little warning to those who regularly purchase kegs. Licensed alcohol retailers are also no longer required to report all keg sales to the State Liquor Authority or collect the mandated deposit.

When the legislation first went into effect in 2003, all kegs had to be marked with tags that identified the renter’s name, address and driver’s-license number. If the renter did not return the keg within 30 days, a mandated deposit of $75 dollars would be given to the state, according to the law.

In 2008, the deposit was reduced to $50, and the time given to return the keg was extended to 90 days. Three years later, local keg distributors are relieved that the legislation has finally expired.

Now that the law has expired, licensees may still have their own deposit requirements to encourage patrons to return empty kegs to the licensee, according to the New York State Liquor Authority website.

April Emmons, a manager at Sabastino’s Pizza on Westcott Street, said she saw keg sales diminish after the registration law was put into effect. She said she has not seen a drastic sales increase because most of Sabastino’s keg customers are Syracuse University students and because most of those students were away for either Thanksgiving or Winter Break.

‘Students are just now coming back to school,’ Emmons said. ‘So hopefully we’ll see some change here.’

Even with the expiration, students may not rush back to kegs as their main source of beer. Emmons said that during the registration law’s tenure, other forms of beer, particularly 30-packs, have become the primary seller.

In 2009, the State Liquor Authority and Office of Alcoholism and Substance Abuse Services drafted a bill that would turn the legislation into law. The bill would have raised the state-mandated deposit back to $75, but it did not pass in either branch of the state Legislature.

William Crowley, spokesman for the New York State Liquor Authority, said he was not sure why the law expired. He said the Liquor Authority made a suggestion two years ago to further the law’s sunset. 

‘For whatever reason, it didn’t pass this year,’ Crowley said.

Crowley said the main reason the registration law was put into place was to curb underage drinkers from purchasing kegs. He said that with the costly deposit fee, underage drinkers would not be able to collect enough money for the purchase.

Now that the keg prices are back down to an affordable level, business managers, such as Emmons, are hopeful that keg popularity will increase.

Said Emmons: ‘$75, that’s a lot extra for someone to come up with.’

ansteinb@syr.edu

Published on January 18, 2011 at 12:00 pm