Washington State

Office of the Attorney General

Attorney General

Bob Ferguson

AGLO 1979 NO. 1 >

Neither RCW 66.28.010 nor RCW 66.28.020 prohibit a person who has a contract vendor's interest in a restaurant holding a retail liquor license in the state of Arizona from legally serving as a licensed agent of a wine wholesaler and importer in the state of Washington.

AGO 1953 NO. 2 >

Municipal corporations do not have the power to impose a business tax upon taverns and "H" licensed premises.

AGO 1996 NO. 4 >

The Liquor Control Board does not have the statutory authority to appoint a winery or brewery as a liquor vendor to sell only the spirituous liquor that the winery or brewery produces.

AGO 1996 NO. 8 >

RCW 66.28.190 does not authorize a liquor wholesaler who also wholesales non-liquor items to offer free product, price discounts, or similar sales incentives to retailers on the non-liquor items.

AGO 1972 NO. 12 >

A county civil service commission for sheriff's office employees, organized and operating under the provisions of chapter 41.14 RCW, may not promulgate a blanket regulation excluding persons otherwise qualified under RCW 41.14.100 from making application for any civil service position in a sheriff's department, regardless of its duties, on the basis of their being less than twenty-one years of age and thus not legally able to enter a tavern for law enforcement purposes; however, in those selected classes of positions which require the employee to enter taverns for these purposes, a requirement that the applicant be at least twenty-one years of age, and thus legally able to enter a tavern, would be valid.

AGO 1991 NO. 31 >

1.  RCW 66.04.030 permits a local option election unit to conduct an election in the question of whether the sale of liquor under a class H license should be permitted within the election unit.  The boundaries of the local option election unit are the city or town or unincorporated portion of the county in which the unit is located.  If the voters approve the proposition, it is unlawful to sell spirituous liquor by the drink within the local option election unit.   2.   When a city annexes new territory, the general rule is that the authority of the city extends over the new territory.  However, cities are not granted the power to restrict the sale of liquor.  That power is granted to the voters of a local option election unit.  Annexation does not make the new territory a part of the local option election unit.  The prohibition on liquor sale is limited to the corporate limits of the city as it existed at the time of the local option election.  Thus, when "wet" territory is annexed into a city that contains a "dry" local option election unit, it does not become "dry" by reason of the annexation.

AGLO 1974 NO. 67 >

(1) Assuming that all of its officers are United States citizens, an incorporated city or town may be issued a retail liquor license by the state liquor control board under the provisions of RCW 66.24.010. (2) The liquor control board, acting through its enforcement officers and subject to the applicable provisions of the Administrative Procedures Act, may enforce the liquor act and related regulations in the case of violations thereof by an incorporated city or town as licensee.