BATON ROUGE -  The East Baton Rouge Metro Council voted Wednesday to approve a new ordinance that looks to curb an uptick in liquor sales to those under the age of 21.

District 9 Councilman Dwight Hudson said the Alcohol Board of Control came to him with the idea after it was found that almost half of the businesses in the parish were not compliant with it.

"At our last ABC meeting, it was charted the trend forty-two percent -- that's a pretty bad rate for something we really should see in the single digits," Hudson said. 

The ordinance is broken into two sections: one for guidance when someone is between ages of 18 and 20, and another covering those even younger.

"One, we want to make the fines higher so folks know we're serious about it. Two, we want to provide some guidance, so we set some ranges for the fines. And three, we want to be flexible."

Originally, a first offense for a business being caught would incur a minimum fine of $250. The new ordinance increases that to $2,500. On a second offense within a two-year period, the minimum fine would be $2,5000, but could be up to $5,000.

In cases where the drinkers are between the ages of 18 and 20, the business will be fined $1,000 instead of $750. For a second offense within a twelve-month period, instead of a $1,000 minimum, the fine would be $1,500 with a maximum of $2,500.

The ordinance also adds a third offense — in this case, when there are three violations within a 12-month period, the minimum fine is $2,500 and the maximum is $5,000, with a minimum ten-day suspension.

The ABC board now has the right to waive or reduce suspensions within a six-month period when the board agrees.

"If you don't want to get fined, don't sell to underage and don't sell to minors, and you would avoid these fines all together, it's a real simple formula there," Hudson said.