Wisconsin will allow larger gifts to retailers - Brief Article

Modern Brewery Age, April 9, 2001

AP--Ciov. Scott McCallum has included, a provision in the next state budget allowing brewers and beer distributors to give more expensive gifts to bar and restaurant owners who carry their products, a newspaper reports.

Gifts from beer makers often include neon signs, mirrors, lamps, clocks, expensive dinners and chauffeured trips to professional sporting events, concerts and casinos, the Wisconsin State Journal reported.

The provision would remove limits on the number and value of signs taverns and restaurants can accept. The current limit is $150. The measure also would increase the total value clocks, menu boards and other free items they can accept from $150 to $2,500.

The value of free tickets to games and concerts, free meals and transportation would increase from $75 a day to $500 a day.

The Wisconsin Restaurant Association, Wisconsin Tavern League and Wisconsin Wholesale Beer Distributors Association back the proposal.

Deb Carey, president of New Glarus Brewing Co., which employs 13 people, said the measure plays into the hands of big brewers like Miller Brewing Co. which can buy beer sellers' loyalty. "These are gifts way beyond what a small brewery can do," Carey said.

Miller has contributed $2,325 to McCallum and $99,521 to legislators since 1993, according to the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign.

Paul Lucas, a lobbyist for Philip Morris, the owner of Miller, asserted that the larger gifts probably won't affect owners of smaller breweries.