Walz signs bill on nursing home 'happy hours,' local liquor authority

ST. PAUL — Nursing homes, boarding care homes and assisted living facilities in Minnesota will now be able to serve alcohol during resident activities and events without possessing a liquor license.

Gov. Tim Walz signed the liquor omnibus package April 21, including the nursing home “happy hour” bill. The House passed the package on a 129-1 vote April 14, and it cleared the state Senate 56-10 the next day.

Walz celebrated the signing on social media, writing, "Living in a nursing home shouldn’t mean giving up everyday freedoms."

The package also contains other bills largely aimed at expanding local licensing authority. The League of Minnesota Cities stated in a news release that many of the liquor bills approved were also reviewed in the last session before the bill stalled in April 2025.

The omnibus package permits liquor licenses for a variety of venues in Minnesota. This includes allowing Lake of the Woods County to issue a temporary license to the Baudette Arena Association and allowing the Brainerd City Council to issue a special license to the Northern Pacific Center in Brainerd.

It also allows county boards to issue seasonal on-sale licenses to resorts, championed by Rep. Matt Bliss, R-Pennington.

"A lot of the smaller places that have a smaller lodge, maybe seats 10 or 12 people and not a real fancy kitchen, they're not allowed to get the seasonal license," Bliss said in a March 17 committee hearing.

“It just makes sense to allow them to get a seasonal license as well, since they're only open five or six months a year.”

Bliss owns and operates the Point Bliss Resort on Lake Kitchi, about 20 miles east of Bemidji.