Poll: New Jersey Voters Divided Over Liquor License Changes

By Christian Wade | The Center Square contributor, The Center Square New Jersey

February 16, 2023

(The Center Square) — "New Jersey voters are divided over Gov. Phil Murphy's plan to upend the state's prohibition-era liquor license laws," according to a new independent poll.

The Fairleigh Dickinson University survey found 50% of New Jersey residents support the governor’s proposal, compared to 38% opposed, with 12% on the fence over the issue.

The poll found people evenly split between those who prefer to bring their own alcohol to a restaurant, those that prefer to buy from the restaurant, and those who don’t care either way.
Pollsters said the survey's data suggests Murphy "may have stepped into a minefield" by proposing the changes to the state's decades-old liquor licensing laws.

"Liquor licenses may seem like too minor an issue for the governor to include in the State of the State address," said Dan Cassino, a professor of government and politics and director of the poll. "But this is a wickedly contentious measure."

Murphy's plan, unveiled during his State of the State speech, calls for the state to "gradually relax" a cap on liquor licenses that limits local governments to one license per 3,000 residents until it’s eventually eliminated.

The poll, which included about 800 respondents between Feb. 1-6, revealed divisions along partisan lines, with Democrats more supportive of Murphy's plans than Republicans (54% to 43% respectively), even though Democrats said they are more likely to prefer bringing their own alcohol to restaurants (36%) than Republicans (31%). Murphy is a Democrat.

"On issues that people just don’t know much about, they try to make things easier with partisanship," Cassino said. "Knowing Murphy supports something is a strong signal to both Democrats and Republicans about what they should think."

"What’s especially tricky about this is that it isn’t a statewide problem," Cassino said. "In some places, they’re no more expensive than they are anywhere else; in others, it’s a million dollars. Any change is necessarily going to hurt some people more than others."

The poll also showed substantial regional variation in attitudes towards liquor license expansion, with residents in the northern part of the state much more supportive than those in southern areas.

Pollsters noted that supporters of expansion argue the high cost of licenses has "kept restaurants from opening in many parts of New Jersey. They said alcohol sales are a major contributor to the profits of many restaurants, and the lack of them "may be a factor in holding back downtown revitalization projects."

But they also pointed out that the scarcity of liquor licenses has been credited with helping cities and towns keep chain restaurants out, reducing competition for local eateries. As such, some have raised concerns that expanding the number of liquor sales would devalue existing licenses, and that appears to be driving much of the opposition to Murphy's plan.

"People who are losing something are always going to fight harder than people who are looking to get something," Cassino said. "If I had spent a million bucks on a license, I wouldn’t let the state devalue it without a fight."

The focus of the work of The Center Square New Jersey is state and local-level government and economic reporting that approaches stories with a taxpayer sensibility.