Americans for Prosperity Wisconsin:

There’s a war being waged in Madison that few people know about. …

The focus of this combat is none other than beer, or rather, the hundreds of entrepreneurs in Wisconsin who have started their own breweries (or who hope to make that leap some day).

The celebrity of its latest victim may help to shine a light on cronyism that’s holding back entrepreneurship across Wisconsin.

The owner of Milwaukee’s famed Sanford Restaurant, and the 2014 Winner of Best Chef in the Midwest, hoped to open a brewery in Wisconsin. Instead, a little known provision passed in the 2011 budget that precludes the holders of liquor licenses (like restaurateurs) from opening breweries or brewpub means that chef-owner Justin Aprahamian will be taking his talents and investment to Illinois, rather than creating jobs here in the Badger state.

The government logic behind the law goes something like this: in order to protect small breweries from monopolistic abuse by large breweries, we must stop these small breweries from existing. Makes sense? I didn’t think so.

Aprahamian isn’t the first victim and certainly he won’t be the last. Earlier this year a young couple in Eau Claire operating a successful tavern sought to fulfill their dream of opening a small brewery. They too were denied their dream by the nonsensical law created to protect the narrow interests of a handful of beer wholesalers and a single large brewer.

Beer isn’t the only target. Wisconsin’s young but rapidly growing winery sector is also on the chopping block. This past spring, the legislature inserted a provision into the budget denying wineries the ability to sell beer. Eliminating this important revenue stream for a growing sector of our economy would have likely put several entrepreneurs out of business. Governor Walker wisely vetoed the provision.

Other crony restrictions remain on the books such as laws preventing wineries from hosting weddings or other events past 9:00 PM or from holding liquor licenses to sell spirits at those festivities. Big government protectionism like this serves as a real impediment to economic development and opportunity in rural Wisconsin.

Hopefully the Sanford case will bring some much needed attention to the sorry state of affairs that are Wisconsin’s laws governing the manufacture, distribution, and sale of alcoholic beverages. We’re well positioned to be a national powerhouse in the production of craft beer, spirits, and wine. We just need government to get out of the way.