Two New Laws Signed: Beers and Bolls

New Kansas laws will make the state fair home to drinkers who roam and allow the state to tax each bale of home-grown cotton up to $2.

Governor Laura Kelly has signed bills passed by the Legislature to boost beer and wine sales at the state fair, and to create a program for combating boll weevil infestations.

The State Fair sought the change in the law dealing with alcohol consumption during the annual two-week fair in September in Hutchinson, basing it on a practice allowed in other states.

The new law will allow fair-goers to walk outside with their drinks “within boundaries that have been marked with a three-dimensional barrier.”

The boll weevil law sets up a board with five voting members appointed by the state’s secretary of agriculture to run the new program and set the per-bale tax.

If weevils are detected in Kansas, the board can develop a plan for getting rid of them.