Teetotaling from home rule

WITH MANY legislative leaders at the Democratic convention, there was little chance this week of any significant business being done on Beacon Hill. But the House member representing Westwood has frozen even routine action to protest a fellow representative's block on a home rule petition for a beer and wine license for a supermarket. There would likely be no deadlock at all if cities and towns had greater power to grant alcohol licenses within their own borders.

The town of Westwood wants the license for a Wegmans supermarket to be built at the new Westwood Station development. The historically dry town voted for the change in town meeting, and Representative Paul McMurtry brought the home-rule petition to the House.

Ordinarily, such bills sail through, but this one ran into opposition from Representative Angelo Scaccia of Readville in Boston. He has refused to explain his stance - a common assumption is that he is acting on behalf of the supermarket chain Roche Bros., which already has a store in Westwood and complains about the unfairness of facing a rival store with a beer and wine license. In theory, the Roche Bros. store in Westwood could seek its own license from the town, but state law restricts owners of supermarkets to three licenses statewide, and the chain has reached that limit.

Two years ago, Massachusetts voters rejected a ballot question to repeal the three-store limit. But the legislative stalemate is testimony to the kind of unequal competitive situation that current law creates. If the Legislature is unwilling to do away with the limit altogether - and leave licensing where it belongs, with individual towns - it should at least take some of the pressure off by granting the chains the right to have 10 or a dozen licenses. Consumers would thank them for the convenience.