Nurse staffing ratios. Right to repair. Zoning reform. Almost every election, there is at least one ballot question that defies easy explanation and generally boils down to a dispute among interest groups. This year, add liquor license reform to the list.

The question heading towards the November 2022 ballot involves a dispute between package stores and food and convenience stores about how many alcohol licenses should be available to different types of stores and what rules should govern them.

The Legislature’s Joint Committee on Consumer Protection and Professional Licensure held a hearing Monday, which only highlighted how confusing the ballot question is.

Currently, Massachusetts offers one license that lets a retailer sell all types of alcoholic beverages, and another license that only allows beer and wine sales. No single entity can hold more than nine licenses, so chain stores are limited in how many of their locations can sell alcohol. The ballot question and a related bill would increase the total number of licenses a single entity can hold from nine to 18 by 2031. But it would lower the number of “all alcoholic beverages” licenses that a single entity can hold from nine to seven.

The convenience store chain Cumberland Farms has for years been pushing lawmakers to let food stores obtain an unlimited number of licenses to sell wine and beer. The Massachusetts Package Store Association, which represents Massachusetts-owned liquor stores, is framing the initiative as a compromise. In written testimony, the association calls the ballot question “a necessary check to repeated moves by large corporate interests seeking marketplace dominance.”

“This question is about the survival of Main Street retail in Massachusetts. They’re under attack,” said Rob Mellion, executive director of the Massachusetts Package Store Association, at the virtual hearing.

Cumberland Farms, however, is not backing the so-called “compromise.” It is instead pushing for a bill that would create a separate and unlimited “food store license” to sell alcohol – a bill the package stores say would let food stores flood the market with corporate outlets and discounted products.

Food stores are also complaining that the package stores inserted a “poison pill” into the ballot question through a change in how fines are levied. Now, licensees who violate state alcohol laws (for example, by selling to a minor) can pay a fine in lieu of having their license suspended. The size of the fine is based on their gross profit from alcohol sales. The ballot question seeks to change that so the fine is based on all the store’s sales, not just alcohol sales.

Grocery stores say this is unfair because it would vastly increase the size of the fines only for businesses whose prime product is not alcohol. “There is no correlation with any deli, bakery, seafood or other grocery department purchase and any purchase made of an age regulated item such as alcohol or tobacco in a food store,” wrote Brian Houghton of the Massachusetts Food Association, which represents grocery stores, in written testimony.

Jon Hurst, president of the Retailers Association of Massachusetts, said this provision is “a discriminatory effort to create a regulatory disincentive for those establishments to sell and serve alcohol to their customers.”

There is also a dispute over whether it is good public policy to ban self-checkout of alcohol, which the ballot question would do.

For years, some policymakers have argued that complex measures are best left to the Legislature, not the voters to decide, since legislation allows for nuance that ballot questions do not. The legislative process lets lawmakers balance the concerns of various stakeholders in writing a bill, while the ballot question is written by one side.

That said, lawmakers have often hesitated to act on tricky policy questions unless the parties involved reach a consensus themselves. In this case, with all sides digging in, consensus seems unlikely.

SHIRA SCHOENBERG

FROM COMMONWEALTH

Baker health care push: Gov. Charlie Baker renews a push for reorienting health care toward behavioral and primary care, a shift that failed in 2019 but may have a better shot this year as the Legislature is also considering health care legislation. Read more.

Scrap metal fight continues: The scrap metal export operation at Brayton Point in Somerset asks a Land Court judge for more time to comply with his order to shut down. The judge tells the company it can load metal onto a ship three more hours a day but everything has to halt on March 21. It’s a sign that the contentious fight over the scrap metal operation is likely to go right down to the wire. Read more.

OPINION

Wait them out: Paul Hattis of the Lown Institute writes an open letter to the Department of Public Health offering a take-your-time strategy on how to deal with Mass General Brigham’s expansion plans. Read more.

FROM AROUND THE WEB

BEACON HILL

A push to divest Massachusetts’ holdings in Russian interests fizzles out. (Gloucester Daily Times)

MUNICIPAL MATTERS  

In the wake of yesterday’s indictment of Black activist Monica Cannon-Grant on multiple fraud charges of stealing money donated to her nonprofit, Globe columnist Adrian Walker laments the fact that those leading other organizations in “overlooked” communities “will now face a far more wary donor class wondering whether they are looking at a savior or just another scam.” Howie Carr puts it far less delicately, ridiculing “stupid rich guilt-ridden suburban white women” who gave Cannon-Grant money. (Boston Herald)  

Amherst buys a 150-acre former golf course at a fraction of the market price from a solar developer who will retain rights to build a solar array on a portion of the property. (Daily Hampshire Gazette)

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu’s proposed ordinance to limit protests gets a somewhat chilly reception from the CIty Council. (GBH)

Everett City Councilor Anthony DiPierro comes under fire after admitting he shared a racist meme with some of his colleagues. (GBH)

HEALTH/HEALTH CARE

The US Department of Veterans Affairs is proposing a sweeping consolidation of health care services that would include closing the VA hospitals in Bedford and Northampton and reducing services at the VA hospital in Jamaica Plain. (Boston Globe) 

The Massachusetts Association of Health Plans has joined the opposition to Mass General Brigham’s proposed $2.3 billion suburban expansion. (Boston Globe) 

Immigrant families claim they faced discriminatory and substandard treatment at East Boston Neighborhood Health Center. (Associated Press)

WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL

President Biden will announce $800 million in new military aid to Ukraine. (Washington Post) 

The US Senate passes a bill that would make daylight savings time permanent across the country. (NPR)

ELECTIONS

Chicopee City Councilor Joel McAuliffe leaves his job as deputy chief of staff for state senator Eric Lesser, potentially in preparation for his own run for state representative. (MassLive)

CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS

A 31-year-old teacher and 17-year-old student were shot and wounded outside TechBoston Academy, a 6-12 grade pilot school in Dorchester. (Boston Globe) 

William Riley, the director of the St. John Food for the Poor Program in Worcester, is placed on leave amid an investigation into claims of “illegal activity involving adults,” according to the diocese. (MassLive)

Two Acton police officers are placed on leave after former high school students claimed they engaged in inappropriate behavior while working as school resource officers. (MassLive)

MEDIA

Mike Deehan is leaving GBH’s State House bureau to run Axios Boston. (Media Nation)