Liquor laws in Texas underwent some changes this year, thanks to the 81st Legislature, including one change that requires the Department of Public Safety to suspend a person’s driver’s license for operating a watercraft while intoxicated.
Laura Willingham of the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission was in Port Isabel Friday to meet with the Lower Rio Grande Valley City Secretaries/Clerks Association to explain the changes.
Another change that affects young people prohibits minors from operating any vehicle on land or water while having any detectable amount of alcohol in their system, Willingham said. Such a violation would also result in the suspension of the minor’s driver’s license.
Texas magistrates can also now issue a warrant to collect a blood sample from anyone who refused to submit to a blood test after being arrested on charges of driving, flying, boating or assembling an amusement ride while intoxicated, or intoxication assault.
Store clerks or bartenders who sell alcohol to minors who present what appears to be a valid proof of identification that establishes the minor to be 21 years of age, but which proof is actually fraudulent will no longer be prosecuted for selling the beverage to the minor, Willingham said.
Wine connoisseurs in Texas can now buy up to nine gallons of wine per month from a winery as opposed to three gallons before the law was changed. But the limit is 36 gallons within any given 12-month period.
Willingham, an accounts examiner for the TABC’s licensing division, also discussed the Public Entertainment Facilities Act, which exempts a city or county owned facility from independent concessionaire requirements if the venue was publicly financed and is tax exempt. Previously, she said, a city or county that entered into financial arrangements with concessionaires selling spirits could have been charged with being a subterfuge owner of the concession.
Another change affecting local governments was an amendment to the Texas Election Code to provide greater ability to hold prohibitory local option elections regulating alcoholic beverage sales within a given geographical area.
Courtesy of South Padre Island Breeze
http://www.spislandbreeze.com/articles/changes-7577-liquor-suspend.html
