Are your town's liquor license fees costing you more at the tap?

The first 1,291 pints of pale ale sold each year at Emmett's Brewing Co. in downtown Palatine cover the cost of the $7,425 annual liquor license fee paid to the village.

Just down the road at Emmett's nearly identical West Dundee operation, only 609 pints have to be sold to cover the $3,500 liquor license cost.

Why the disparity in pricing from one suburb to the next?

There's no regulation of liquor license fees and towns can charge whatever they want, a cost that is ultimately passed on to bar and restaurant customers.

Local leaders say the fees cover costs like criminal background checks and police patrols associated with having liquor-serving businesses in town, saving taxpayers from having to pay.

Some suburbs use liquor licenses to encourage some types of establishments and discourage others.

Others that charge a premium can do so because of their in-demand location. Palatine, with its 92 liquor licenses, has the ninth-most licenses among 86 suburbs analyzed by the Daily Herald. Naperville is at the top with 242 licenses, followed by Schaumburg with 190, Aurora with 180, Arlington Heights with 130 and Des Plaines with 122, according to the Illinois Liquor Control Commission.

Liquor-selling businesses in the 86 suburbs paid a combined $7.8 million for 3,967 liquor licenses, according to the analysis of the towns' most recent audits. The average price tag for a liquor license in those suburbs was $1,959.

Rolling Meadows made, on average, $4,267 per liquor license in 2014, the most among the suburbs. Like many suburbs, Rolling Meadows doesn't allow bars. Any business that sells liquor for in-house consumption must also serve food.

It's part of a swath of Northwest suburbs with higher-than-average liquor license fees, including Arlington Heights, Mount Prospect, Prospect Heights and Palatine.

“The amount business owners have to pay definitely gets through to them that selling alcohol has to be taken super seriously,” said Rolling Meadows Mayor Tom Rooney, who also is the town's liquor commissioner. “There's a component of the cost that makes it say, 'This is serious business.' If the price weren't a big deal, people would treat it like that.”

In Palatine, where liquor license fees average $3,607, Village Manager Reid Ottesen said much of the $331,878 the town received in 2014 funded administration and enforcement. Some went to cover special police foot patrols downtown at a cost of about $30,000 a year.

In many towns the fees also pay for stings, where local police send underage actors into a business to try to purchase liquor.

Some business owners say liquor license fees help them decide where to locate. They point out their establishments contribute property, sales and often food and beverage taxes to municipalities.

“We are not going to move into a municipality with outrageous license fees,” said Christina Anderson-Heller, marketing director of the Roselle-based Lynfred Winery. “Not only do we have to pay for separate liquor licenses, but along with those licenses we have tourism taxes, food taxes, health department fees, delivery fees and more. Licensing is a sizable part of our budget.”

Lynfred operates in four suburbs and Anderson-Heller noted “there is no consistency” in fees charged.

In the past, legislation has been proposed to limit or regulate local liquor license fees, but with little success. The hospitality industry might welcome such laws, but towns tend not to.

“While uniform licensing fees would be ideal, we recognize that municipalities have the right to determine the necessary costs of doing business within their jurisdiction,” said Sam Toia, President and CEO of the Illinois Restaurant Association. “The Illinois Restaurant Association encourages authorities at the local and state levels to enact legislation and policies that will help the hospitality industry of Illinois thrive.”

Local officials say they pay close attention to what neighboring towns are charging.

“The approach we've taken is to look at other communities for comparables,” said Gerald Sprecher, village manager of Lisle, a town that averaged $1,642 per liquor license last year.

Ottesen said liquor license fees also vary because some towns have alcohol taxes charged on every beverage served up or annual processing fees for licenses, something Palatine doesn't do.

Palatine's liquor license fee schedule is undergoing a “full-blown” review next month, Ottesen said. In the meantime, the village board voted Monday to reduce license fees for two businesses from $2,209 a year to just $109 annually. Ottesen said village officials decided the businesses, which specialize in cooking classes, served alcohol in such limited amounts that the higher license fee was unfair.

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Contact Jake at jgriffin@dailyherald.com or (847) 427-4602.