By Matthew Watkins, The Texas Tribune
Great news, children of Texas: Your unlicensed lemonade stands soon won’t be criminal enterprises.
Gov. Greg Abbott late Monday signed a bill that prohibits cities and neighborhood associations from enacting rules that block or regulate children trying to sell nonalcoholic drinks like lemonade on private property. The law targets local health codes and neighborhood rules that intentionally or unintentionally ban the stands or require permits for them to operate.
Support for such a law in Texas began to grow in 2015, when police in the East Texas town of Overton reportedly shut down a lemonade stand by two young siblings who were trying to earn money to buy a Father's Day present.
The bill, authored by state Rep. Matt Krause, R-Fort Worth, passed unanimously in both chambers. Abbott signed the bill in a video he posted on Twitter.
"Here is a common sense law," he said in the video.
It’s now legal for kids to sell lemonade at stands.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) June 11, 2019
We had to pass a law because police shut down a kid’s lemonade stand.
Thanks to @RepMattKrause. #txlege #LEMONADE pic.twitter.com/xwfCob2nvV
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2019/06/10/texas-greg-abbott-signs-bill-declaring-childrens-lemonade-stands-legal/.
Read related Tribune coverage
- Analysis: The Texas Legislature has left Austin. Now what?
- From property taxes to teacher pay, here's how the Texas Legislature handled spending priorities
Texas Tribune mission statement
The Texas Tribune is a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
