Bourbon on the River - Senate Bill 62

At Kentucky River Tours we do love teaching people about the history of Kentucky the Kentucky River, and both of their connections to bourbon. However, unless we bring a local business on board to offer their bourbon, we have not been allowed to pour our own. And we have done that for the last few years, partnering with a great local bourbon hotspot called "Bourbon on Main".

Why have we not been allowed? Why couldn't we just get our own alcohol license? Kentucky law has a line in it that allows for a "riverboat" to have its own license, but Kentucky defines a riverboat as hauling 100 passengers for hire or more. We run a 49 passenger boat!

Knowing we had this conundrum, we approached our partners at the Kentucky Distillers Association, facilitators of  "The Kentucky Bourbon Trail", to see what we could do. They connected us with their lobbyist and he recommended us reaching out to congressional delegates for a path forward. 

We contacted our local Senator, Gex Williams, during the summer of 2023, and proposed to him the idea of dropping that 100 passenger number down to 40. Gex was all on board, as he sees the value in bourbon tourism, and he is also a huge advocate for using our Kentucky River and appreciates the history of it.

From these early and innocent conversations, Senate Bill 62 was born. This bill simply changes that one word in the Kentucky Statutes from 100 passengers to 40 passengers. This allows for smaller vessels to still be able to navigate the smaller locks of the Kentucky River, but these smaller boats will not be punished for their size by withholding rights to things like alcohol licenses.

On Thursday, January 18, 2024, SB62 officially passed the Kentucky State Senate with a unanimous 35-0 vote. The bill is now off to the House side of Kentucky government to hopefully obtain passage there, and if and when, to the governors desk for signing.

To sum up the enormity of what SB62 will do for Kentucky, the Kentucky River and Kentucky River Tours, it is best to quote Senate Majority Floor Leader, Senator Damon Thayer of Scott, Grant, Fayette and Kenton, during the First Reading of the bill at the Senate Standing Committee of Licensing and Occupations: