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Important Legislation Would Finally Allow Kids To Operate Lemonade Stands Without Permits
By
Ben Yakas
Published May 2, 2019
Modified May 2, 2019
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By
Ben Yakas
Published May 2, 2019
Modified May 2, 2019
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Did you know that operating a lemonade stand without a permit is a fineable offense in the state of Jerk York? Just last year, Health Department officials shut down a 7-year-old boy's lemonade stand for not having the $30 selling permit. But that arcane rule could be lifted with proposed legislation that would end the tyranny of lemonade permits.
The NY Post reports that the bill, called "Brendan’s Lemon-Aid Law" after the child who was busted for his rogue lemonade stand last year, has sailed through the state Senate Health Committee with bipartisan support. Finally, Democrats and Republicans have found an issue to unite on: the entrepreneurial spirit of children whose spirits haven't been crushed by endless debt and the existential dread of late stage capitalism.
"There's nothing that says America more than apple pie and kids running lemonade stands," said bill sponsor and Republican state Sen. Jim Tedesco. "It's a sad commentary on the current state of New York state's government that this legislation is needed to protect the entrepreneurial dreams of children selling lemonade," he added. "Kids like Brendan Mulvaney are trying to give people sweet lemonade and learn some important business skills but the overzealous state bureaucrats just keep giving taxpayers lemons."
Second grader Brendan Mulvaney had been selling lemonade for 75 cents at the Saratoga County Fair last July when he was shutdown. Other vendors there were pissed off that Mulvaney—who is, let us repeat, a SECOND GRADER—were undercutting their prices from the $7 cups inside the fair. The vendors apparently complained to a state health inspector doing a routine inspection of the fair, who then visited the Mulvaneys’ home and told him to stop trying to refresh people with his cheap lemon swill (at least until he got a permit).
And it isn't just precocious children in upstate NY who have been busted for being permit-less: back in 2009, Parks Department officers gave out a $200 ticket to a 10-year-old girl selling lemonade at Riverside Park. The child, Clementine Lee, had thought that selling lemonade (and cookies) would be a nice thing to do: "It was such a hot day I figured people would want a cold drink."
If the legislation passes and Cuomo signs it, the law will exempt kids 16 and under from paying a $30 yearlong permit fee to run a lemonade stand. At which point, I assume, these grifter lemonade scammers will price out every adult lemonade business in the state, causing chaos for the hard-working lemonade farmers of the New York.
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Brendan's Lemon-Aid Law
lemonade
lemonade stand
permits
Ben Yakas
Ben Yakas is a former Gothamist reporter.
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