Liquor License Fee Not Approved

The state budget is beginning to take shape as House and Senate committees have begun approving some fee increases and extending the life of other fees.

However there is one fee hike absent from the list — an increase in the cost of a liquor license.

The governor wants to hike the cost of a liquor license by 50-percent.

But State Representative Al Pscholka, a Stevensville Republican, says he and other lawmakers are shying away from fee increases that go above and beyond what would cover the actual cost of a service.

Most of the measures recently approved by the House Appropriations Committee, which Pscholka chairs, have been to extend fees that were due to expire soon.

Also in limbo is a proposed fee increase on the agriculture sector. Pscholka says his committee is still mulling that over.