The Massachusetts State Senate has cast its vote, signaling potential last calls for a decades-old prohibition. With a nod to nostalgia and local autonomy, the Senate has greenlighted an amendment that could mark the return of happy hour specials before the clock strikes 10 p.m. This decision forms a piece of the larger $2.8 billion economic package designed to bolster the state's economy.
The legislation, part of a sweeping economic development bill, was spotlighted due to its allowance for city and town-level decision-making regarding the revival of happy hour promotions. As reported by WCVB, the amendment lets localities autonomously opt-in for happy hour, empowering communities to bring back discounted alcohol scenarios as they see fit. Other parts of the economic bill touch base on juvenile court system expansion, life sciences sector investment adjustment, and boosts to various funds, including climate and rural development.
Senator Julian Cyr, who represents the Cape and Islands, has been a champion of this amendment. His persistence may soon pay off, four decades after the initial ban took hold. "It's been 40 years since the happy hour ban was put in place. Massachusetts was the first state in the nation to have a happy hour ban, and at the time, in 1984, it probably made some good sense, where the dangers of happy hour and especially drunken driving were rampant across the country," Cyr told his colleagues, according to the State House News Service as reported by Boston 25 News. "Yet Massachusetts is now the last state in the nation to have an absolute ban on happy hours."
Advocates for the amendment posit the resurgence of happy hour can inject more life into Massachusetts after dark, re-energizing its nightlife while offering restaurants and bars a way to attract patrons. Despite this step forward in the Senate, the previously lukewarm reception in the State House of Representatives casts a shadow of uncertainty on the amendment's ultimate fate. Cyr experienced similar legislative roadblocks during his push last year. The comprehensive legislative package, including the hotly-contested happy hour amendment, will soon move to the State House, where its future remains to be distilled.
