Owners of Albany restaurants and bars took their concerns about dramatic increases in alcohol license fees to the Albany City Commission Tuesday, complaining that a new fee schedule that was adopted in May will impact their livelihood significantly.

Henry’s Fine Edibles owner Jim Ervin spoke on behalf of the bar and restaurant owners, noting that the fees built into the ordinance would amount to a 64 percent increase by Jan. 1, 2015 for establishments that sell liquor by the drink. The fees increased by $800 — from $2,500 to $3,300 — on June 1 and are set to increase by another $800 to $4,100 in 2015.

“If this increase was 5, 6 or 7 percent, none of these (business owners) would be here this morning,” Ervin said. “But a 32 percent increase this year and a 32 percent increase next year is excessive. It’s not like we can increase our menu costs by 32 percent at a time. If we did that, we’d all be out of business.

“All of us understand that there have to be increases sometimes, but I can’t imagine there’s any other business where the increases were this same percentage. This is excessive, it’s detrimental to our businesses and we’re here today to ask you to rescind or reverse this $800 fee increase to something that’s more reasonable.”

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