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House advances bill that would OK smaller restaurants in Hillsborough to serve alcohol

in The Bay and the 'Burg/Top Headlines by

It’s not likely that anyone would actually know this, but Florida state law requires that any restaurant that serves alcohol must be at least 2,500 square feet in size.

In Hillsborough County, however, state law says that restaurants that sell booze must be at least 4,000 square feet.

Attempting to rectify that anomaly, Tampa Republican Dana Young is pushing a local bill (HB 1417)  that would give Hillsborough a break. It would change state law to allow restaurants there to use the same criteria as every one of the state’s other 66 counties.

Young’s bill passed unanimously in the House Local Government Affairs Subcommittee on Monday. So far there’s no Senate sponsor, though.

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Mitch Perry has been a reporter with Extensive Enterprises since November of 2014. Previously, he served as five years as the political editor of the alternative newsweekly Creative Loafing. He also was the assistant news director with WMNF 88.5 FM in Tampa from 2000-2009, and currently hosts MidPoint, a weekly talk show, on WMNF on Thursday afternoons. He began his reporting career at KPFA radio in Berkeley. He's a San Francisco native who has now lived in Tampa for 15 years and can be reached at [email protected].

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