Prince George's County - Alcoholic Beverages Licenses - Prohibition on Transfer of Class A Beer, Wine, and Liquor License PG 314-26
HB0407 is a local bill applying only in Prince George’s County that changes the rules for Class A beer, wine, and liquor licenses. Under current law, these licenses allow retail sales of packaged alcoholic beverages for off-premises consumption. The bill would prohibit the Board of License Commissioners from approving the transfer or sale of a Class A license to another person or another location, require a license holder to return the license if it expires or if the holder no longer wants it, and bar the Board from reissuing a returned Class A license.
The bill also retains existing county-specific licensing provisions for drugstores and other transfer rules in the alcoholic beverages code, but adds a categorical restriction for this one license class. Its effective date would have been July 1, 2026. Because the bill was withdrawn by the sponsor, it did not advance to enactment and would not have changed the law unless reintroduced and passed in a later session.
If enacted, HB0407 would have amended the Prince George’s County provisions of the Alcoholic Beverages and Cannabis Article to eliminate the marketability of Class A beer, wine, and liquor licenses by prohibiting their transfer or sale and preventing reissuance of surrendered licenses. This would have affected license holders, prospective buyers, the county Board of License Commissioners, and retail businesses that rely on Class A licenses for packaged alcohol sales. The bill would not have changed the general statewide alcohol licensing framework, but it would have imposed a county-specific restriction on license ownership and succession in Prince George’s County.
There is limited evidence of public or committee sentiment because no committee transcripts or recorded votes are available. The only clear procedural signal is that the bill was withdrawn by the sponsor in the House, which suggests it did not have enough support or was no longer being pursued. In the absence of recorded debate, the overall sentiment cannot be characterized beyond noting that the proposal did not move forward.
The main point of contention appears to be the bill’s restriction on the transfer and sale of Class A licenses, which would remove a property-like feature of those licenses and could affect business value, succession planning, and secondary-market transactions. Supporters would likely view the measure as a way to limit speculation or consolidation in the county’s alcohol licensing system, while opponents would likely object to the loss of transferability and the inability to reissue returned licenses. Because there were no transcripts or votes, the specific arguments and stakeholders are not documented in the available record.