Poll: MA Voters Split On Bringing Back Happy Hour

ACROSS MASSACHUSETTS — A new UMass Amherst-WCVB poll found that 48% of registered Massachusetts voters say they would support a proposed ballot initiative to end the ban on happy hour alcohol sales in Massachusetts.

The poll also found that 26% of voters don’t know how they would vote, and the remaining 26% said they would vote no, WCVB reports.

Meanwhile, a MassInc Polling Group survey conducted over the summer found that 70% of Bay State residents were in favor of reinstating happy hour.

The initiative, which could go before voters in November 2022, is partially in response to a proposed bill by State Rep. Mike Connolly, D-Middlesex to reinstate happy hours. The state has banned happy hours since 1984, following a number of drunk driving incidents, many of which involved happy hour patrons. It remains one of the few states in the country with the ban.

If the state legislature does not agree to reinstate it, Attorney General Maura Healey has allowed a petition drive to get it on the ballot. Massachusetts law requires signatures that amount to 3.5% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial race. The signatures must be obtained by Dec. 1.

Connolly said that “the culture has changed,” and patrons have more options than they did 35 years ago to prevent drunk driving, like ride sharing, according to the Colorado Springs Gazette.

So far the Massachusetts Restaurant Association has come out against that portion of the bill, arguing that happy hours might hurt revenue at a time when restaurants and bars are still recovering from the pandemic.

Charlie Baker has also come out against the change, saying that he was concerned such legislation might increase drunk driving incidents.

“I remember what was going on the roads in Massachusetts when we had happy hours,” Baker said Thursday. “There were some awful, horrible, terrible experiences on a very regular basis that came with happy hours back in the day, and I know that probably makes me a stick in the mud to say such a thing, but I would start as a skeptic of going back to the way we ran happy hours once upon a time.”

The bill would also extend some policies enacted during the pandemic, such as outdoor dining and cocktails to go, which MRA supports.