The High Point Enterprise supports Gov. Bev Perdue’s opposition to privatizing the state’s ABC system:
..Perdue offered a very personal reason last week when she announced her opposition to the idea of privatizing the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control system. She doesn’t want to have to lead her granddaughter past rows of liquor bottles on the way to the toy aisle in a retail store.
That’s an understandable position for a grandmother to take, but another comment she made even more strongly points out why selling the state ABC system is a bad idea.
“I suspect they (legislative leaders considering the idea) will find out what I did; the juice isn’t worth the squeeze.”
..Surely, we agree that hard decisions must be made this year in order for legislators and other state officials to achieve a balanced budget, as required by law. But selling a valuable, revenue-producing asset for a one-time squirt of juice just makes no sense.
As you can probably imagine, the John Locke Foundation has a million (slight exaggeration) reasons why the system should be privatized. Regarding Gov. Perdue’s apparently moral justification that she doesn’t want to take her granddaughter past rows of liquor bottles in Rose’s, well, uh, I’m not sure about that one.
Put it this way —JLF found that deregulation in West Virginia and Iowa resulted in less per-capita alcohol consumption, meaning it “should therefore not cause increases in such things as drunk driving and domestic abuse.”
