SLA Commits to Greater Transparency

Governor Hochul has pledged to usher in a new era of greater transparency and accountability. As part of that commitment, she has required all of the State agencies under her control to submit plans to accomplish this goal. The Liquor Authority’s submission to the Governor’s senior staff was comprised of a summary of their current efforts – including engaging with groups like ours – and their plans going forward.

The Authority is nearing completion of a multi-year, wholesale redesign of their back-end licensing and compliance systems. Once complete in mid-2022, they’ll have significantly more digitized information that can be shared with the public. Prior to that, the SLA has determined that they can make this information available soon:

• General application processing time ranges provided on application receipt
• Estimated date of determination for application provided as additional data in the status query
• Full Board meeting minutes posted to the website
• Posting of declaratory rulings requests prior to Full Board consideration
• List of Full Board actions on licensing matters to be posted subsequent to each bi-weekly meeting

The continued integration of technology into the Liquor Authority’s operation has improved service for licensees and the public. Let’s hope this next phase of changes stays on course and we realize these benefits over the next few months.