I’m sure many of you have heard of Surly Brewing Corporation. They are a local Minnesota brewery who makes some might find beer. Yesterday they announced plans to for a $20 million expansion that would include a restaurant and beer garden. This sounded great to me as it would create some great private sector jobs in this state which are sorely needed.
Well it would be great except for the fact that Surly can’t start construction because of currently existing legislation. Once again the government is getting in the way of private enterprises. So what is this legislation? Well, in Minnesota, only small breweries are allowed to sell beer for on-site consumption. Once you get beyond an arbitrary size you are no longer allowed to run a restaurant and a brewery because that would just make too much sense (you know there was a special interest bar lobby that pushed this to avoid competition with local breweries).
Once again instead of just being able to go about legitimate business a private company has to hire a lobbying firm in the hopes of getting a stupid law repealed. If the law can be repealed then said the legitimate business can actually go about helping the local economy by creating new positions for the currently unemployed. No wonder Minnesota’s economy is in the tank, legitimate businesses aren’t allowed to actually do business.