SLA makes liquor license renewals a little more friendly

Robert and Max Bookman, partners at Pesetsky & Bookman, The Alliance's general and legislative counsel, have the following update for Alliance members: 

We would like to amplify State Liquor Authority Chair Lily Fan's recent announcement that most SLA-licensed businesses can now access their Renewal Advisory Notices online. This is a common-sense fix to a perennial thorn in the side of New York City businesses when renewing their liquor licenses.  

Part of the liquor license renewal process involves SLA sending the business a Renewal Advisory Notice, which contains the specific fee the business must pay to renew its license. A copy of that notice must be returned to SLA with the renewal application. SLA has traditionally sent these notices via snail mail, directly to the business address. The notices routinely get lost in the mail, misplaced, or erroneously returned undeliverable, all of which contributes to businesses not renewing their licenses on time, sending urgent requests to SLA for reprints, or paying the wrong fee.  

Moving forward, SLA is now also making the notices available online, via a dedicated page on the SLA website. This cuts out all the mail-related issues, and allows businesses to obtain a copy of their unique Renewal Advisory Notice months before their license must be renewed. We have already heard very positive feedback from businesses that have used this new feature.

Thank you to Chair Fan and SLA staff for coming up with this user-friendly change to SLA's renewal process. We look forward to many more positive improvements to SLA's process as the agency works to reduce its backlog and better serve New York's small businesses.