Richmond’s conventional wisdom has decided that there’s just no real interest in Gov. Bob McDonnell’s proposal to sell the state’s ABC stores. One of the most reliable barometers of the local CW is Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist Jeff Schapiro, who wrote over the weekend that even among the governor’s advisors, “it’s acknowledged that privatization is anything but white hot.”
Perhaps. And if all we’re concerned about is how the idea is marketed, this lack of enthusiasm would be of more concern. However, the matter does draw interest where it matters most – among the legislators who will be asked to vote on any privatization plan.
Their interests all boil down to money. They don’t want the state (by which they mean themselves and the appropriations committees in particular) to lose out on the revenues the stores generate each year.
In an era of tight budgets, this would seem to be prudent. But it also shows just how far we’ve come from the ABC stores’ original mission.
In the days after Prohibition, lawmakers crafted a set of recommended principles to guide their work on a new system of alcoholic beverage control. At the top of the list is a principle that seems utterly out of place in today’s privatization debate: (emphasis added)
The first objectives of the plan should be temperance, social betterment and respect for law. The need for revenue should never be allowed to take top priority.
The biggest issues today are how much money the state can reap from the sale of its stores and whether it will be able to replace the monopoly profits it wrings from consumers. As for temperance…there is a saying that Richmond watering holes eagerly look forward to the General Assembly’s return each year because the worthies have a nearly unquenchable thirst.
This brings us to consider principle number five:
The private profit motive, with its incentive to encourage sale and consumption of alcoholic beverage, should be minimized.
Virginia has, indeed, restricted the availability of distilled spirits. But the “private profit motive” is alive and well in the current ABC framework. The most recent budget raised the mark-up on spirits by two percent (the twelfth time the state has done so since 1979). And even the restrictions are loosening, as legislators agreed to open more stores and allow in-store tastings. Profit motives? The state does have a profit motive, and the ABC happy to tout its record sales and note that “Employees worked hard to deliver this record performance and are working hard to beat the record again next year.”
Sounds like they are quite motivated — by profits.
Which are in turn used to grow government. No wonder so many legislators like the system: it allows them to embrace the fading idea of temperance while enjoying the rewards of monopoly profits.
Meaning they get to play the roles of Baptist and Bootlegger at the same time.
