As a conservative politician, Governor Robert McDonnell leans heavily on the Christian right. But it appears that of late his family values are being trounced by his political values. In answer to the dilemma of providing funding to build needed roads without imposing tolls or levying new taxes he says all we have to do is sell off the state-owned and operated ABC liquor stores to private citizens or corporate entities.
Virginia is one of 18 states in which the sale of liquor is controlled statewide through state-owned Alcoholic Beverage Control outlets.
Jim White
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Everyone agrees that we need new roads (and to repair the ones we have) but nobody wants to be inconvenienced by having to pay for them. Tolls have been discussed as a fair way to raise the money because those who use the roads pay for them. Still, highways are like the Internet. We are usually accustomed to using them without cost (except in Richmond) and don’t like the idea of paying every time we go out for a spin.
On the surface of it, the Governor’s plan sounds worthy of consideration. It fits his fiscal conservative views to take business out of the hands of government. He says the government shouldn’t be in the liquor business in the first place. He says that by selling the ABC stores, equipment and a warehouse, we will raise $300 million to $500 million one-time dollars to apply to roads.
His assertions, however, are disputed by those who point out that his solution provides short-term, quick money at the expense of long-term high-level income generated by liquor sales through the ABC outlets. According to one study, the state would lose more than $200 million every year by privatizing the sale of liquor.
McDonnell counters by claiming that there would be so many more liquor stores added and that consequent sales would increase so sharply that the taxes from the added transactions would make up the difference.
For those who may share his views, may I remind us how the ABC system came into being? There was a time in this country, leading to the Prohibition era, when the social costs of alcoholism and alcohol abuse became so great that its production and sale became illegal. The country then discovered that drinking didn’t cease just because it became illegal.
With the repeal of prohibition, Virginia and most other states decided to regulate the sale and by so doing, seek to contain the social ills. Have they been contained?
Ask Lena Self. She met Clyde, her handsome soldier-husband, in her native England during World War II and returned to the states with him as a war bride. She still remembers the financial ruin brought to the family and the abuses she sustained during Clyde’s years of drinking. Happily, Clyde was transformed by the power of Christ and became one of the most committed and generous Christians I have ever known. But, after all these years, Lena still shudders when she thinks of the pain she and her children endured. And, to his dying day, Clyde was ashamed of the hurt he had caused.
Have the social ills been contained? Ask Sharon Musgrave. A drunk driver hit the car in which she and her husband were riding head on. Her husband, Bobby, was killed instantly and Sharon, three months pregnant, recovered slowly. Thousands of others could echo her tragic story.
Have the social ills been contained through the ABC system? Ask the wife who visits the emergency room occasionally because she is prone to “falling.” Her blackened and swollen eyes speak of physical abuse more urgently and truthfully than her lips. Battered women’s shelters are necessary because the social ills of alcohol abuse have not been contained by the ABC system. Who knows how many other women and children, and even men, suffer in silence?
No, the human suffering created by the abuse of and dependency on alcohol has not been contained. Still, without question the suffering was less than it would have been without controls!
So now, for the sake of some quick cash, our conservative, family-values Governor thinks that selling the current ABC franchises and licensing new ones is a good idea? By his own admission (and financial hopes) it will lead to an abundant flow of liquor, a great ooze of booze.
Surely he cannot be oblivious to the human suffering alcohol inflicts. Oh, I know. Alcohol doesn’t inflict suffering on people. People inflict suffering on people when they drink it. And the more available it is, they more they will drink. In this, I agree with the Governor’s logic. And, the more they drink, the more suffering their drinking will create.
And don’t forget the more they drink and the more social chaos they create, the more tax money will be spent attempting to rectify the damage. Alcohol consumption affects us financially in other ways as well. Businesses charge more for goods and services to cover the costs of decreased production due to missed work and ineffective job performance. Health care coverage costs more because alcohol abuse takes its toll on the human body and mind.
Since the Governor cannot be oblivious to the suffering alcohol inflicts, why would he even be willing to allow, much less encourage, greater use that will inevitably result in greater suffering? Does he not care? Surely he cannot be so callous.
No, the Governor is aware of the social injuries and injustices created by alcohol usage and I am sure he must care about that. What, then, can explain his motivation for privatizing the ABC system?
Money. Quick money. Money to build roads. Money to secure his legacy as one who was able to get it done. That’s what I think. I’m not a mind reader and I can’t see into the man’s heart. But what else could explain such a socially and (long-term) financially disastrous policy? Apparently he thinks Virginia will do just about anything for money. What do you think?