MTA officials are looking to loosen restrictions on alcohol advertisements throughout the transit system, arguing that an existing ban costs the agency millions of dollars annually.

The Metropolitan Transportation Authority Board will vote Wednesday on new exemptions to the policy, which currently prohibits alcohol advertisements throughout the transit system, including on subways, buses, train stations and the Long Island Rail Road.

When it adopted the ban in 2017, the MTA said it aimed at maintaining "a safe and welcoming environment for all MTA employees and customers, including minors, who use MTA’s subways, buses, commuter trains, and crossings," according to agency documents.

But MTA officials now say the policy is overly restrictive, leading to the transit authority foregoing $7 million to $10 million a year in potential ad revenue.

"Many of the ads that promote eateries or restaurants which include a glass of wine potentially on the table, we are spending our time rejecting those ads and the subsequent revenue that may come from it, or debating whether or not the content is grape juice or wine," Jessie Lazarus, deputy chief of commercial ventures at the MTA and chair of the agency’s advertising review committee, said at a Monday meeting of the MTA’s finance committee in Manhattan.

The amended ad policy would allow for booze advertisements in certain areas, including near "large venues where alcohol is lawfully sold," in "train wrap" ads covering the exterior of the 42nd Street "S" subway shuttle train, on billboards more than 500 feet from schools, playgrounds and places of worship, and on digital screens.

Speaking at the finance committee meeting, MTA Board member Midori Valdivia noted that the original ban came after the transit agency saw evidence of advertisers targeting "school children and neighborhoods of color." Although she understands "the business thinking" behind the proposed changes, Valdivia said she'd prefer to keep "the alcohol ban just the way it is."

"Ultimately we are a public agency, so we play a role in what messages our communities receive," Valdivia said. "I think we should take that role seriously."

Lazarus said with the advent digital display ads, the MTA can now run alcohol ads outside of the hours where children typically are in the transit system, and make sure they are randomly cycled, so as to prevent advertisers from targeting specific geographic communities.

MTA Board member Haeda Mihaltses said the proposed changes are "a very good decision," as the ban often keeps the MTA from sharing in ad sales from major sporting events to which it transports riders, like the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Flushing Meadows-Corona Park each summer.

"As someone who lives in Queens, every time you step off the 7 train during the last two weeks of August ... you’re flooded with Heineken green," Mihaltses said. "And we don’t capture any of that revenue."