Virginia looking at Obenshain’s proposal to privatize liquor stores
Richmond, VA – Last year, Virginia celebrated the 75th Anniversary of the establishment of its state-run liquor stores, called “ABC stores.” This week, a bill (SB 443) introduced by Senator Mark Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) designed to privatize Virginia’s ABC stores was passed by indefinitely by the Senate Finance Committee to provide more time to work with the Governor to refine the proposal.
“I look forward to working with Governor McDonnell to develop legislation that divests the Commonwealth’s liquor monopoly in a financially and socially responsible manner,” said Obenshain.
Retail stores featured over-the-counter sales until a conversion to self-service stores began in 1969.
“State liquor monopolies are a holdover from the early days after the repeal of Prohibition, a product of unrealized fears,” Obenshain added. “We’re still living in the shadow of Prohibition seventy-six years after repeal.”
Virginia is one of eighteen “control” states, where both retail and wholesale operations fall completely under the purview of the state, a holdover from John D. Rockefeller’s campaign for state control of liquor sales in an attempt to prevent “moral decay.”
“We can achieve privatization in a socially responsible manner. We have three quarters of a century of evidence to show that control states do not fare any better than their non-control counterparts on underage drinking, driving under the influence, or alcoholism. In fact, states with private liquor sales do better in these areas – and still the Commonwealth refuses to release its grip on the sale of alcohol,” said Obenshain.
“Divesting Virginia’s ABC stores is a win-win situation,” Obenshain explained. “Privatization offers consumers the benefits of competition: more convenient hours, wider selection, lower prices, and innovation, just to name a few. It does away with the more than $120 million the government spends each year on administrative costs while creating new revenue streams by auctioning off wholesale and retail licenses. And it gets the state out of something in which it never had any business getting involved.”
Under Obenshain’s proposal, package store licenses, which would authorize the retail sale of alcohol beverages, would be auctioned off one at a time, with no less than one license in every city and county, and the number of licenses tied to the population of the jurisdiction, adjusted every five years. The annual state license charge on package store licenses would be determined by auction, and would be inflation-adjusted.
“This is an idea whose time has come,” said Obenshain. “Privatizing the ABC stores and using the revenue to help fund transportation is one of Governor McDonnell’s priorities, and I look forward to working with the Governor to make this a reality.”
Virginia is not alone in this effort; North Carolina, Washington, and Mississippi are currently weighing proposals to sell their distilled spirits monopolies to raise revenues, and many states divested their own operations in the 1990s. “As Governor McDonnell said in his State of the Commonwealth Address, selling Jack Daniel’s is not a core function of government,” said Obenshain.
Senator Obenshain represents the twenty-sixth district in the Virginia Senate. The district includes the city of Harrisonburg, the counties of Warren, Shenandoah, Page, Rappahannock, and part of Rockingham County.
On the web:
Mark’s website.
Senate Bill 443
This is an interesting site you have here but I can’t seem to find the RSS subscribe button.
ED: Hi Jeanetta, There are two spots on the page for RSS subscription. The first is on the top menu, last position to the right, and is simply titled, “Subscribe.” That link is to the RSS 2.0 feed url. An alternative, especially if you use RSS 1 or an Atom feed reader is in the left hand column, under “7Bends (RSS) Syndication” and gives you the choice of feed format. Hope this helps, and thanks for asking. JM
While this topic can be very challenging for most people, my opinion is that there has to be a middle or common ground that we all can find. I do appreciate that you’ve added relevant and rational commentary here though. Very much thanks to you!