| Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission (ABCC) | ABCC is an agency under the Massachusetts State Treasury, the objective of which is to provide uniform control over the sale, transportation, possession, purchasing, and manufacturing of alcoholic beverages in the state. |
| All-Alcohol license | This is a license authorizing the sale of all alcoholic beverages, including wines, malt beverages, and distilled spirits. |
| allocated licenses | This is the number of on-premises liquor licenses a quota municipality is permitted to issue pursuant to the population-based formula under the Massachusetts General Laws (MGL) c. 138, § 17. |
| allowed licenses | This is the number of on-premises liquor licenses a municipality is permitted to issue, whether pursuant to the population-based formula under MGL c. 138, § 17; pursuant to special legislation enacted upon home rule petition; or pursuant to local determination, if the municipality is a local-control municipality. |
| constrained municipality/constrained quota municipality | This is a quota municipality with license utilization at or above 80%. |
| equalized valuation (EQV) | EQV is a standardized measure of municipal wealth determined every two years by the Department of Revenue under MGL c. 58, §§ 9–10C. EQV is an estimate of the full and fair cash value of all taxable property in a municipality, adjusted so that valuations are comparable across municipalities. This report uses EQV per capita (EQV divided by population) to classify municipalities into wealth quartiles. |
| exception license | This is a license that is issued outside the population-based quota—e.g., special event licenses, farmer series licenses, additional licenses granted pursuant to special legislation enacted upon home rule petition—and therefore not counted against a municipality’s quota when measuring license utilization. |
| Gateway City | Defined under MGL Chapter 23A, § 3A, as “a municipality with a population greater than 35,000 and less than 250,000 with a median household income below the commonwealth’s average and a rate of educational attainment of a bachelor’s degree or above that is below the commonwealth’s average.” |
| home rule petition | A home rule petition is a formal request by a municipality to the Massachusetts state legislature (the General Court) to pass a special law that applies only to the specific municipality (e.g., a request for authority to issue liquor licenses in excess of quota). |
| inactive/pocket license | This is an issued on-premises license for a business that has closed or stopped operating retained by the license holder. |
| issued licenses | This is the number of on-premises liquor licenses a municipality has granted to specific license holders (issued licenses may be less than allocated licenses, indicating unused capacity or greater than allocated licenses where home rule petitions have allowed licenses above a quota). |
| license access | This is the number of allowed licenses issued by a municipality per 10,000 residents. |
| license utilization | This is the percentage of a municipality’s licenses allocated under the MGL c. 138, § 17, quota formula issued to license holders. |
| licensing fees | These are the amounts payable to obtain or renew an on-premises license—the annual fee set by the municipality under MGL c. 138, § 23, together with the filing fee payable to ABCC; distinct from the transfer price paid to an existing licensee on the private secondary market. |
| local-control municipality | This is a municipality that is authorized to grant on-premises licenses “in addition to, and irrespective of” the state-imposed population-based quota because it accepted the provisions of MGL c. 138, § 17A, pursuant to St. 1978, c. 377, § 2. |
| median | This is the middle value in a set of numbers that separates the upper half from the lower half when the numbers are arranged in ascending (or descending) order. |
| off-premises license/§ 15 license | This is a license under MGL c. 138, § 15, authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption at a location other than the location of purchase. |
| on-premises license/§ 12 license | This is a license under MGL c. 138, § 12, authorizing the sale of alcoholic beverages for consumption at the location of purchase. |
| outcome-based sample | This is the combined sample of 302 quota municipalities and 26 local-control municipalities. |
| quota/quota formula/§ 17 quota formula | This is the state-imposed population-based number of licenses that may be issued by a quota municipality under MGL c. 138, § 17. |
| quota municipality | This is a municipality that is subject to the state-imposed population-based quota under MGL c. 138, § 17. |
| secondary market | This is a market where publicly issued licenses are bought, sold, and transferred between private parties. |
| unconstrained municipality/unconstrained quota municipality | This is a quota municipality with license utilization that is less than 80%. |
| utilization band | This is one of four percentage ranges in which quota municipalities are classified based on the percentage of allocated licenses issued; for purposes of this report, quota municipalities are classified as underutilizing (< 50%), moderate (50–79%), high (80–99%), or at or over quota (≥ 100%). |
| wealth quartile | This is one of four EQV per capita ranges that are determined by sorting the 328 outcome-based sample municipalities by EQV per capita in ascending order, dividing them into four equal groups of 82, and setting the high point of each range equal to the EQV per capita of the municipality with the highest EQV per capita in each group; for purposes of this report, municipalities are classified as Q1 ($76,427–$177,434), Q2 ($177,435–$231,944), Q3 ($231,945–$328, 158), or Q4 ($328, 159–$2,837,676). |
| Wine-and-Malt license | This is a license authorizing the sale of wines and malt beverages only (includes licenses for wine and malt, wine only, malt only, with or without liqueurs and cordials). |
