ASSEMBLY APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

[First Reprint]

ASSEMBLY, No. 5259

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  DECEMBER 18, 2025

      The Assembly Appropriations Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 5259 (1R).

      As reported, this bill permits plenary and farm winery license holders who produce not more than 250,000 gallons per year to sell the wine they produce to any other plenary or farm winery license holder in this State for purposes of sale by the purchaser on the licensed premises of the winery or to sell wine to any winery outside of this State in accordance with the laws of the purchaser’s state.  Under the bill, wine sold to another winery is not to be considered towards the calculation of the amount of wine produced by the seller but is to be considered towards the total number of gallons produced per year by the purchasing winery.  The bill provides that no less than 50 percent of the wine sold per year is required to be produced on the license holder’s premises.

      In addition, this bill establishes a supplemental wine production facility sublicense.  The holder of a plenary winery license or a farm winery license engaged in the production of wine on the licensed premises of the winery who holds a supplemental wine production facility sublicense would be entitled to produce wine at the supplemental wine production facility owned and leased by the license holder.

      Under the bill, the holder of this sublicense is additionally entitled, subject to rules and regulations, to transfer wine produced at the supplemental wine production facility to the licensed premises of the winery or salesroom for sale at retail to consumers and to otherwise sell and distribute wine produced at the supplemental wine production facility pursuant to the laws of the place of sale and distribution.

      The bill provides that any wine produced at the supplemental production facility that is not sold to another winery license holder is to be considered when calculating the total gallons per year of wine produced by the licensee for purposes of determining any fees, limitations, and eligibility for privileges that may pertain to the holder of a plenary winery license or farm winery license.

      The bill prohibits the sale of wine at retail to consumers on the premises of the supplemental wine production facility.

      Under the bill, as amended, the fee for the sublicense is $750.

FISCAL IMPACT:

      The Office of Legislative Services (OLS) finds that the bill will result in indeterminate increases in annual State revenues and expenditures.  The OLS, however, cannot assess the magnitude of the increases given the absence of information on the potential revenue collected from the total number of plenary and farm winery sublicenses that may be issued annually, the future license fees, and sales tax on products sold.  It is unknown if there will be additional revenues from penalty collections which would be offset to some extent by increased expenditures for regulation and enforcement of the new licenses and additional costs for the division’s increased workload.