Anybody want to buy a liquor store?

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Anybody want to buy a liquor store? You MAY get your chance. From the Seattle PI (http://www.seattle-pi.com/local/booz11.shtml):

-695 puts the Liquor Board in a price bind

Thursday, November 11, 1999

By ANGELA GALLOWAY SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER CAPITOL CORRESPONDENT

OLYMPIA -- Washington officials have scotched any thought of boosting liquor prices, thanks to Initiative 695.

The state Liquor Control Board is among a number of state and local agencies waiting to hear whether they need voter approval to bump the prices of their goods, from gravel to grilled-cheese sandwiches.

Some say the answer to that dilemma could lead a movement toward privatization of everything from college food services to prisons.

With its 314-store monopoly on booze sales, the state Liquor Control Board may be most directly affected.

Meanwhile, Rep. Kathy Lambert, R-Redmond, and others said the questions may offer a chance to revisit proposals for privatization.

Lambert, who says the state has no place in the booze business, sponsored an unsuccessful bill to privatize liquor sales last year. There have been nearly a dozen such attempts to privatize liquor sales through citizen initiatives since the early 1970s.

But I-695 already has state agencies looking to become more efficient, Lambert said.

"People want government to be streamlined," she said. "I think we're going to find a whole lot of things that have happened in state government that could be privatized."

Don Brunell, co-chairman of the NO on 695 campaign and president of the Association of Washington Business, agreed that "privatizing (and) contracting out all those issues is back on the table."

MY GOODNESS! I-695 may do for Washington what the Wall coming down did for East Germany.

-- Craig Carson (craigcar@crosswinds.net), November 11, 1999

Answers

"Don Brunell, co-chairman of the NO on 695 campaign and president of the Association of Washington Business, agreed that "privatizing (and) contracting out all those issues is back on the table." Talk about a marriage of convenience. The AWB - Union coalition had a half-life of about a millisecond, didn't it?

-- (zowie@hotmail.com), November 11, 1999.

Gee, if we got rid of the Washington State Liquour Control Board and its chain of limited-hours limited location retail outlets, maybe I could buy Tokay wine again. I need this for one of my favorite recipes, but the WSLCB decided some time ago that this wine was not in the best interests of the public, and I haven't been able to get it. Boy, it is a fruity flavored wine, but the government monopoly booze board has used their POWER to make the choice for me.

Our state constitution defines the legitimate function of government in the very first article: "...to protect and maintain individual rights." Nothing about selling booze and running numbers games.

-- Art Rathjen (liberty@coastaccess.com), November 11, 1999.


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