Massachusetts has debated liquor licensing reform for decades while the licensing system’s basic architecture—a population-based formula calibrated in 1933, a permanently closed exemption window, a legislative relief pathway without transparency, and a private market without records—has remained in place. This report documents what that archaic licensing system now produces: licenses that are exhausted where demand is dense and stranded where demand is thin (Finding 1); municipalities that are inequitably divided into two tiers by a 40-year-old legislative fluke (Finding 2); license access that rises with municipal wealth (Finding 3); relief pathways that reward capacity, relationships, and capital (Finding 4); and an information environment that makes the whole system difficult to navigate and impossible to evaluate (Finding 5).
There are three primary reforms recommended in this study.
First, this study recommends eliminating the state-imposed population-based quota for on-premises liquor licensing and establishing local control, as municipalities are best positioned to make local decisions (Recommendation 1). This recommendation is addressed in S.3228, and the evidence assembled in this study supports enactment.
Second, this study recommends addressing the equity and wealth-access barriers created by the secondary market for on-premises liquor licenses. This recommendation is addressed in S.3228, and the evidence assembled in this study supports nontransferability (Recommendation 5).
Third, this study recommends that the Commonwealth create a centralized data platform, and uniform liquor licensing data collection, reporting, and website content standards, to make, and to assist municipalities in making, the liquor licensing system more transparent and accessible to prospective licensees and the public (Recommendation 4).
If the House of Representatives or the Administration rejects the reforms recommended both in this evidence-based report and in S.3228, this study offers alternative proposals that, while more limited in effectiveness, would help improve equitable access to the liquor licensing system (Recommendations 2 and 3).
This report supplies the evidence base for robust deliberation of these issues—verified measures of where the current system leaves licenses unused and where it binds, documented accounts of how the relief pathways operate, and recommendations designed so that whichever path the Legislature chooses ensures increased equity and transparency in liquor licensing.
| Date published: | October 13, 2026 |
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