Well, well. Look who turns up on the op-ed pages of the UPoR to decry even the hint of privatizing liquor sales in North Carolina: Parks Helms.
Ol’ Parks runs through the usual strawmen tossed up whenever defenders of the status quo get rolling, the poor will be hurt, cheap liquor will flood the streets, etc. This is old and tiresome. What would change the most is that inside operators like Parks — and the serial flim-flam artists in New Hanover County and all points in between — would go poof. That is what they fear.
Tellingly, what Parks does not mention is the windfall government would receive from switching to private vendors, one that does not increase liquor sales at all.
First, there is the one-time revenue associated with selling off local board-owned stores. Mecklenburg County’s 24 ABC stores come in a range of vintages and values. Some are free-standing and owned by the county board, a few seem to be leases. In any event, millions of dollars worth of property could be sold off with the proceeds endowing any manner of good works — or simply help to pay the routine cost of government. In fact, I’d guess $10m. to $15m. might be raised from the sale.
And after that transfer, the parcels then become tax-paying as opposed to tax-eating. A rough guess would be maybe $150K to $200K in added city-county property tax revenue each year. And that would be on top of all the existing liquor excise tax and liquor sales profits currently generated. Parks does not like to talk about that, with good reason.
The bottom-line is states across the country have figured out ways to get out of the liquor hawking business without civilization falling apart. It is just the right thing to do. That Parks hates the thought just makes it all the sweeter.
