All Roll Calls
Yes: 190 • No: 5
UtahH.B. 5972026 General SessionHouseWALLET
Alcohol Amendments
Sponsored By: Burton, Jefferson S.
Signed by Governor
BusinessAlcoholDepartment of Alcoholic Beverage Services
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
15 provisions identified: 8 benefits, 2 costs, 5 mixed.
Violation histories can block alcohol licenses
Beginning May 6, 2026, the commission can deny retail licenses, conditional retail licenses, or sublicenses based on an applicant's violation history. It can also deny applications based on the listed legal review factors. It must treat substantially similar histories and apply those factors consistently. A denied applicant cannot operate under the requested license.
Restaurants and reception centers face food tests
Beginning May 6, 2026, full-service, limited-service, and beer-only restaurants and reception centers face a 70% food-sales revenue rule. They also meet the compliance test when annual markup cost is no more than 30% of food revenue plus markup cost. The calculation divides annual markup cost by annual gross food-sales revenue plus annual markup cost. For reception centers, these tests replace the former limit on the share of receipts from alcohol sales.
Patrons can carry drinks between venues
Beginning May 6, 2026, you can carry a drink from a bar to an adjacent restaurant with the same owner. The venues must be no more than 35 feet apart. A bar employee must escort you. You cannot enter, cross, or otherwise use a public walkway while carrying the drink.
Alcohol businesses gain easier storage rules
Beginning May 6, 2026, retail licensees no longer must keep liquor storage areas locked under the repealed requirement. On-premise banquet and reception center licensees can return saleable opened and unused alcohol to approved storage. They can also return alcohol in unopened containers. These return-to-storage rules do not require the approved area to be locked.
Event organizers get simpler location approvals
Beginning May 6, 2026, event permittees must apply for and receive the director's approval before moving alcohol activity to another location. This covers storage, sales, furnishing alcohol, and allowing consumption away from the location on the permit. The specified subcommittee approval step is removed.
Restaurants and hotels gain location exceptions
Beginning May 6, 2026, Utah can license restaurants and hotels despite usual distance rules when local consent expressly authorizes the proximity. The exception does not apply near a school or church, and hotels must meet remaining license and bar-sublicense requirements. The local authority must hold a public meeting at least 30 days before consent; restaurant cases must allow public comment. The Point of the Mountain State Land Authority now counts as a local authority within its jurisdiction. When it handles either exception, the municipality must hold a separate meeting before the authority's meeting.
Smaller hotels can qualify for licensing
Utah lowers the hotel room requirement from 40 rooms to at least 30 for alcohol-license purposes. Hotels must still provide paid temporary lodging and be able to host conventions, conferences, and contracted food and beverage functions. They must also meet one of the listed kitchen or function-space requirements.
Some packaged drinks avoid metered pouring
Covered sellers can serve qualifying spirituous drinks without a calibrated metered dispensing system. Drinks must be 12 ounces or less, with no more than 10% alcohol by volume or 8% by weight. The front label must show alcohol by volume in lettering at least three millimeters high. The exception covers service in original containers, which need not remain sealed, and pouring from original sealed containers into another container. Drinks covered by the original-container exception are exempt from the existing 2.5-ounce patron limit.
Alcohol discipline requires consultation before delay
Beginning May 6, 2026, Utah's alcohol department can hold off starting discipline to avoid significant interference with a criminal or civil case. Before deciding, it must consult the prosecutor, law enforcement, or the plaintiff's lawyer, as applicable. Its other grounds for not starting discipline remain unchanged.
Alcohol warning signs update health contacts
Required alcohol warning signs now direct questions to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services. State stores must display the sign. Package agencies must display it when liquor is displayed or stored where the public can see it.
Wine subscribers pay a minimum markup
Utah's wine subscription program uses a separate pricing rule instead of the general liquor markup rule. The state must add at least 88.5% above the subscription cost for the interval when it buys the wine. The law does not state whether this raises prices compared with the prior rule.
Alcohol buyers face revised ID checks
A valid foreign driver license with a birth date and photo now counts as proof of age. Covered restaurants check people who appear 35 or younger in dispensing areas; checks also cover bar or tavern entry and covered off-premise beer purchases. Checks must confirm age 21 or older and a matching photo; Utah licenses must also show no alcohol-purchase ban. Beginning May 6, 2026, a separate general pre-sale ID-check duty ends, but sales to minors and known interdicted people remain banned. The electronic program no longer must recognize every state's hidden ID security features, and dining clubs leave the covered-licensee definition.
Cash alcohol totals can be rounded
Cash liquor totals can be rounded up or down to the nearest five cents when needed to make exact change. Sellers must apply taxes before rounding. This applies to state stores, package agencies, retail licensees, and permittees, including single-event permittees. The rounding exception does not remove the applicable commission-fixed-price rules.
Reception center licenses get a population cap
Beginning May 6, 2026, Utah sets the reception center license cap at state population divided by 251,693, plus four. The commission can issue licenses within that limit but cannot exceed it. The input does not state the prior cap or how many licenses are already issued.
Some malt drinks count as liquor
Utah classifies qualifying malt-based drinks as heavy beer, which it regulates as liquor. The definition covers listed alcohol-content or flavoring-agent criteria and products with labels or packaging rejected under the cited law. Certain product categories are excluded. Sellers must use this classification when handling the affected products.
Sponsors & Cosponsors
Sponsor
Burton, Jefferson S.
Affiliation unavailable
Cosponsors
Jerry W Stevenson
Republican • Senate
Roll Call Votes
House vote • 3/5/2026
House/ concurs with Senate amendment
Yes: 67 • No: 2
Senate vote • 3/4/2026
Senate Comm - Favorable Recommendation
Yes: 5 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/4/2026
Senate/ floor amendment
Yes: 0 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/4/2026
Senate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension
Yes: 29 • No: 0
Senate vote • 3/4/2026
Senate Comm - Substitute Recommendation
Yes: 4 • No: 0
House vote • 3/3/2026
House/ passed 3rd reading
Yes: 65 • No: 3
House vote • 2/27/2026
House Comm - Amendment Recommendation
Yes: 10 • No: 0
House vote • 2/27/2026
House Comm - Favorable Recommendation
Yes: 10 • No: 0
Actions Timeline
Governor Signed
3/13/2026House/ to Governor
3/12/2026HouseHouse/ received enrolled bill from Printing
3/12/2026HouseHouse/ enrolled bill to Printing
3/6/2026HouseEnrolled Bill Returned to House or Senate
3/6/2026Draft of Enrolled Bill Prepared
3/6/2026Bill Received from House for Enrolling
3/6/2026House/ signed by Speaker/ sent for enrolling
3/5/2026HouseHouse/ received from Senate
3/5/2026HouseSenate/ to House
3/5/2026SenateSenate/ signed by President/ returned to House
3/5/2026SenateSenate/ received from House
3/5/2026SenateHouse/ to Senate
3/5/2026HouseHouse/ concurs with Senate amendment
3/5/2026HouseHouse/ placed on Concurrence Calendar
3/5/2026HouseHouse/ received from Senate
3/5/2026HouseSenate/ to House with amendments
3/4/2026SenateSenate/ passed 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension
3/4/2026SenateSenate/ floor amendment
3/4/2026SenateSenate/ 2nd & 3rd readings/ suspension
3/4/2026SenateSenate/ Rules to 2nd Reading Calendar
3/4/2026SenateSenate/ 2nd Reading Calendar to Rules
3/4/2026SenateSenate/ placed on 2nd Reading Calendar
3/4/2026SenateSenate/ comm rpt/ substituted
3/4/2026SenateSenate Comm - Favorable Recommendation
3/4/2026
Bill Text
Enrolled
3/6/2026
Amended 3/4/2026 20:03:657
3/4/2026
Substitute #1
3/4/2026
Amended 3/2/2026 11:03:931
3/2/2026
Introduced
2/24/2026