Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell’s staff is weighing a liquor license financing plan that could give smaller shop owners a better shot at the coveted licenses, a lobbyist for the state’s convenience store industry said Wednesday.
Eric Finkbeiner, McDonnell’s senior policy adviser, told members of the Virginia Petroleum, Convenience and Grocery Association that staff is considering a proposal in which retailers would be able to finance liquor licenses over time at low interest rates, according to Michael O’Connor, president and CEO of the group.
The governor’s plan that was unveiled earlier this month would auction off 1,000 retail licenses — 600 to large establishments like grocery stores, 150 to package stores, wine and beer shops, and 250 to convenience stores and retail pharmacies. Minimum bids would be based on population density, as well as the license level.
The new wrinkle in the plan to privatize the commonwealth’s state-run liquor stores could be a nod to smaller businesses. With minimum bids for licenses still potentially reaching six figures, organizations like the state’s Beer and Wine Wholesalers Associations have opposed it on the grounds that smaller, mom and pop-type shops would get pushed out.
Stacey Johnson, a spokeswoman for McDonnell, declined comment on the plan Wednesday.
A committee within the governor’s reform commission is set to vote on a proposal when it meets Thursday, Johnson said.
Whether the license financing element would be broached was unclear.
“He said they were working on it,” O’Connor said. “So I would assume that they would want to come up with something for [Thursday].”
The group has not taken an official position on the overall proposal, O’Connor said.
But earlier this week, it got the blessing of Grover Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform and one of the country’s staunchest anti-tax advocates — though Norquist did say in a letter to state legislators the proposed $17.50-a-gallon tax on distilled spirits was “onerous.”
An analysis done by University of Richmond economics professor Robert Cook — which was commissioned by the Beer and Wine Wholesalers Associations — found that the plan would constitute a $64.4 million spirits excise tax increase.
“We will review this report,” Johnson wrote in an e-mail. “However, it’s not lost on anyone that the motivation of the wholesalers is simple economic self-preservation.”
