NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A8198
SPONSOR: Woerner TITLE OF BILL:
An act permitting the city of Saratoga Springs to adopt a resolution
requesting further restriction of hours of sale of alcoholic beverages
within such city
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
The bill would permit Saratoga Springs to apply to the State Liquor
Authority for permission to restrict late-night alcohol sales within the
city limits.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
Section 1 permits the Saratoga City Council to adopt a resolution
requesting permission to change the hours at which alcohol sales are
permitted in the city.
Section 2 provides that Saratoga Springs must adopt any such resolution
within one year of enactment.
Section 3 provides an effective date.
JUSTIFICATION:
The City of Saratoga Springs is a regional tourist destination with an
active, year-round nightlife scene. The city is small, with a permanent
population of approximately 28,500, which triples during the summer
horse racing season when thousands of people flock to the track, and to
the restaurants and bars downtown. Saratoga Springs maintains its own
police force of more than 80 officers who are responsible, among other
duties, for patrolling downtown. In New York State, bars may remain
open until 4 a.m. Under state law, county boards may pass resolutions
requesting permission to further restrict alcohol sales by closing bars
earlier, most often at 1 to 3 a.m. Most of the alcohol-related incidents
in the bar district in the City of Saratoga Springs, including cases
involving police use of force, take place after 2 a.m. The city has
repeatedly asked Saratoga County for permission to close its bars at 2
a.m. instead of 4 a.m. to reduce the problem with late-night bar fights
and other disruptions. The county has turned down this request for
years, without explanation.
Saratoga County is a diverse county, with farmland, suburbs, towns,
villages, and small cities. Within Saratoga County, the City of Saratoga
Springs has a unique character as a tourism and nightlife hub. There are
no other municipalities within the county that have a bar district or
that attract the kinds of tourism, or the kind of late-night public
drunkenness, that Saratoga Springs experiences. This bill would allow
the City of Saratoga Springs to address its specific problem locally
without changing the bar closure time in the rest of Saratoga County.
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS FOR STATE AND LOCAL GOVERNMENTS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.
STATE OF NEW YORK
________________________________________________________________________
8198
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
May 5, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. WOERNER -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Economic Development
AN ACT permitting the city of Saratoga Springs to adopt a resolution
requesting further restriction of hours of sale of alcoholic beverages
within such city
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision 11 of section
2 17 of the alcoholic beverage control law or any other provision of law
3 to the contrary, the legislative body of the city of Saratoga Springs,
4 may adopt a resolution requesting further restriction of hours of sale
5 of alcoholic beverages within such city, and upon notice and hearing
6 within such city, the authority shall approve or disapprove such hours
7 within such city.
8 § 2. The city of Saratoga Springs must adopt such resolution within
9 twelve months after the effective date of this act.
10 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately.
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD11798-01-5
