Alaska liquor board weighs cutting the $1,250 approval fee for alcohol carriers

The Alcoholic Beverage Control Board meets Tuesday, Nov. 17, to consider lowering the one-time $1,250 fee that carriers pay for state approval to deliver alcohol in Alaska.

Since Jan. 1, 2024, airlines, freight companies and other carriers have needed the board's approval to haul alcohol to people in the state. Under state law, an approved carrier must hand each package directly to someone who shows ID proving they are 21 or older and signs for it.

The state lists 27 approved carriers, including Alaska Airlines, Ravn Alaska and Dillingham Freight and Fuel. Package stores with a shipping endorsement and out-of-state makers with a direct shipment license must use them.

The staff draft leaves the new amount blank for the board to fill in, or the board could keep the fee as it is. A September regulation-reduction spreadsheet proposed $250 to let small air freight companies register more easily. The work is part of AO-360, the governor's order to cut regulatory burdens.

The approval form asks for a diagram of each delivery hub. "This was called out during AO-360 discussions as a burdensome requirement, especially for smaller common carriers," Kristina Serezhenkov, local government liaison for the state Alcohol and Marijuana Control Office, wrote in an Oct. 27 memo. Staff found the form already allows a written description instead and asked the board to make that clearer.

If the board approves the draft, the Department of Law would review it, then it would go out for public comment.