Higher Liquor Prices After Initiative 1183
Is this what 60% of Washington voters were voting for? Higher liquor prices? We all saw gazillions of TV ads extolling the virtues of "more competition" and "getting the government out of the liquor business."
Weren't privatization and competition supposed to bring liquor prices down? Apparently not.
Weren't privatization and competition supposed to bring liquor prices down? Apparently not.
posted by Tom Harper at 1:29 PM
12 Comments:
Don't worry, after a year of higher prices the voters will be happy to see another initiative funded by Costco that reduces the fees.
Higher liquor prices? That's horrible! Perhaps that will lead to less consumption and that will lead to fewer drunk driving deaths. Then, as less and less people buy liquor, and learn how to make their own, fees will keep increasing to make up the loss of tax revenue. Social engineering, at its best!
I can't drink anymore. Old age and IBS. That said, I do miss one thing about drinking. I miss drinking alone. Whatever.
OH! I'm so shocked!! You mean the public was duped by an advertising campaign?
Are you telling me that prices are going up, just because "they" can do it?
49 other states have figured out how to deal with liquor sales, a Department of Licensing (front & back license plates that must be physically removed & replaced every 7 years? One place to visit to get your license, then- another separate location to get your plates?), State Parks, etc.
When the state legislature fails to act, initiatives come into play along with big bucks, fine print & people who are impatient & want to send a message.
We'll see this agin in November- when marijuana legalization (not really) is on the ballot in the form of I-502.
I-502 leaves the Drug War in place for adults age 18-20, people who want to grow a plant at home & people who want to possess more than one ounce.
Click on my name above for more info.
Looks a lot like the story in the PDN this morning. We pay MORE in taxes, because the property values have "plummeted".
Seems that the levies we were sold are NOT fixed, but are variable. As property values drop, the amount we pay increases to keep the levies at their original funding rate.
So, we all lose our jobs, are asked to take pay cuts, cuts in our benefits. The value of our assets drop. But, the government makes sure it keeps itself funded, no matter what.
Liquor is a luxury item. It's not anything close to being a necessity of life. If the prices and/or taxes on it go up, it doesn't bother me one little bit.
In fact, I'd like to see a specific tax placed on all alcohol sales, one that would pay for locking up drunk drivers on their first offense. Drunk drivers are a threat to all of us, and kill thousands of people in this country every year. (Think Amber Steim for a high-profile local example.) Yet we as a society don't take drunk driving seriously. I'd like to see all these "pro-life" anti-choice people spend some time working on getting us to stop the slaughter on our roads.
Steim sits in jail and her bail is half a million dollars. Yet one can sell heroin near a school in tweakertown, $500 cash on a $5,000 bond gets you out - and they will give you PLENTY of time to get to another state and they won't care and won't come looking for you. And if you run into a crazed tweaker, good luck getting help. If you call 911, be sure they understand, up front, what color your Prius is. Repeat it over and over and over, or they won't move on and send help.
Everyone is hurting but root for the nurses to get a raise.
Pfttt...
They sure liked to whine about how much it cost me to fix their cars even though they made more than I did, poor babies, they can rebuild their own automatic transmissions.
Hey, any idiot can rebuild one, right? No special training required.
I really can't imagine why anybody voted to privatize liquor sales. It had so many things against it; a) why is considered a good thing for people to have even more, 24/7 access to liquor? b) of COURSE the prices are going up, that's basically the reason Costco pushed for this; and c) lots of nice people lost their jobs at our liquor stores, through no fault of their own, at a time when unemployment is already so high.
This was a stupid thing to do.
Just sayin'.
Of course they are, and then when distributors decide to lower prices to increase demand, sales will escalate. Competition created.
Exactly what happened in California. Come on guys.... don't let these damn liberals blow away this initiative because Gregoire apposed it.
The Stupid, it burns and burns and burns some more.
Post a Comment
<< Home