Contact your representatives NOW about wine shipping bill A-1702

A couple of weeks ago, I explained why I think locavores should care about the wine shipping bill that is going through our state’s legislature right now. If you recall, the senate had passed its portion of the bill, and the bill in the assembly, A-1702, was going to be up for a vote soon. That soon must be between now and June 3. If the Assembly doesn’t schedule a hearing between now and June 3, it will not happen this year. Just in case you’re in denial as to how close we are to the end of May, June 3 is only 10 days from now.

Over the past two days, I’ve been contacted by both the Garden State Wine Growers Association and Free the Grapes asking me to contact my representatives and to spread the word. So I’m doing both.

To contact the representatives who have the most influence over this including Governor Christie* and Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver, click here to have a quick letter indicating that you are in favor of the bill’s passage e-mailed or sent to each of them.

To send a letter created by Free the Grapes sent to your specific representatives that asks them to get this done by June 3, click here. This letter can be changed by you.

The e-mail I received from the Garden State Wine Growers Association said this about the importance of this bill.

It will help New Jersey’s economy – When you provide New Jersey wineries with the ability to sell their products and ship them in New Jersey and across the nation, they will sell more products, grow more grapes, pay more taxes and grow their businesses too.

New Jersey’s many award winning wineries will finally be placed on equal footing with wineries in 35 other states. And, wine consumers from other states will have the ability to have New Jersey wines shipped to their homes.

We do have amazing wineries in our state, and we need the rest of the country to be able to experience our great wines. I believe the passage of this bill will help to grow our economy. As our wineries become more recognized throughout the country, tourism by those that specifically plan trips around wine regions will increase. Not only will the wineries benefit, but the other businesses that tourists patronize will benefit, also. Please take the time to contact your representatives. It would be a shame if the bill doesn’t get scheduled because the voices of the special interest groups that selfishly don’t want this bill are louder than our collective voices.

* I received an e-mail from Governor Christie on May 19th about the letter I sent to him regarding this bill. Basically, his response was thank you for writing, I appreciate learning your views, and he will be sure to take my views into consideration should the bill pass both houses. It gave no indication whether he was or was not in favor of the bill.

Please make sure to include Governor Christie in your correspondence about this bill since he ultimately gets to sign or not sign it.