The State Senate and House of Representatives have passed a bill that will make eight additional full liquor licenses available in Wareham, once it is approved by Governor Deval Patrick.

The long-sought "above quota" liquor licenses are earmarked for specific businesses or locations, as required by the legislative Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure. The number of liquor licenses issued to a town is based on its population, and the town must request any licenses above the quota through legislation.

The locations that will be able to apply for the licenses include the Stonebridge Bistro, Captain Al's Restaurant, China Garden, Minerva's Pizzeria, Ella's Wood Burning Oven Restaurant, and restaurants at Wareham Crossing and A.D. Makepeace's Rosebrook Place development, according to a press release from State Senator Marc Pacheco's (D-Taunton) office. The list also included Merchants Way on the Bay, which closed suddenly in April. Town Administrator Mark Andrews said Tuesday that that license would be designated for another Main Street restaurant.

The business owners will have to go through the liquor license application process, and the Board of Selectmen will have to approve their applications.

"With the addition of these eight liquor licenses, eight different establishments will have the opportunity to grow their business, employ more workers and bring in more revenue," Sen. Pacheco said in a press release. He filed the bill with State Representative Susan Williams Gifford (R-Wareham).

The legislation is dubbed the "Wareham Jobs Bill" by Sen. Pacheco, Rep. Gifford, and Andrews because of the impact the additional licenses could have on economic development and job creation.

The lack of full liquor licenses has been a sore point in the Wareham and Onset business community, particularly for those restaurants with seasonal licenses that cannot serve alcohol from November 30 to April 1.

"I give all the credit in the world to Representative Gifford and Senator Pacheco," Andrews said. "The next step is to turn the legislation into jobs for Wareham residents."

The legislation hit a few stumbling blocks since originally filed by Rep. Gifford, at the request of local officials, in 2007. The original bill sought 15 additional licenses for "economic development zones," with a certain number of licenses allocated for businesses in each "zone." After negotiations with the Joint Committee on Consumer Protection & Professional Licensure regarding the number of additional licenses sought, Town Meeting voted in April 2008 to try to obtain just eight licenses.

But the concept of assigning new licenses to zones rather than to specific businesses quickly became the subject of contention between the town and the legislative committee. The committee argued that assigning the licenses to "zones" was too vague to justify issuing additional liquor licenses for the town.

The chairman of the committee visited Wareham in March, the town ultimately decided to assign the licenses to specific locations, and the bill was moved out of committee in April. It was passed by the Senate early this month.