States in Budget Trouble Turn to the Bottle

Posted:

02/9/10

Filed Under:Taxes

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Several financially strapped states with with strict alcohol controls are considering saving money by privatizing the regulation and sales of booze, beer and wine.

The states say they could raise revenue by selling distribution centers and auctioning liquor licenses to private companies, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Virginia, North Carolina, Washington, Vermont and Mississippi are all looking at proposals that would loosen control of distributorships or retail stores.

As ways to boost revenue, Colorado now allows spirits to be sold seven days a week instead of six, and Pennsylvania will soon permit liquor sales at automated kiosks inside grocery stores.

Moves toward privatization are opposed by religious groups, labor unions and independent liquor stores, the Journal reported.

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Christopher Weber

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yousauid

4:31PM Feb 9th 2010

Well while your at it privatise the DWI laws along with it.

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(2)

splishdripper

10:30PM Feb 9th 2010

$1 per bottle tax on beer,wine, booze etc. just like we did to smokers. Stick it to everybody on everything. That's the American way.

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(1)

clydemertz

6:25PM Feb 9th 2010

Sounds like a great idea. How about including pot,meth,coke and prescription pain killers.

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(4)

kikipooh

6:45PM Feb 9th 2010

Pretty soon they'll be tearing down buildings to send to China for the value of "recycled" concrete. Kinda like the cash for clunkers BS. The reason they pulled that one was simple, China would NOT take anymore dollars. China wanted steel, or STEAL is more like it. These thieves in DC and all over this country are destroying all that our parents and their parents built. These, my friends, ARE VERY DISTURBING TIMES. They MUST be voted OUT! We MUST take back OUR COUNTRY!!!

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(5)

nothingbutblueskies

10:42PM Feb 9th 2010

dear kikipooh.....unfortunately....our parents were part of the problem. Im guessing you have been alive for at least 50 years? and this dear child is when America was sold out, fleeced and ran into the sewer

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(2)

Harpro

7:58PM Feb 9th 2010

Colorado did not start allowing Sunday liquor sales to "boost revenue". People have been calling for this outdated law to be changed since long before the Great Bush Recession.

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THE VOICE

3:25AM Feb 10th 2010

You even connect this to Bush; you are showing your desperation.
Have you looked at a calendar lately?

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(2)

jay mamone

9:55PM Feb 9th 2010

Hell, with this administration, you BETTER be able to get booze 7 days a week.
"I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than to have a frontal lobotomy!!"
just a thought

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(2)

jay mamone

10:09PM Feb 9th 2010

Let's all have a government subsidy on Jack Daniels
We are gonna need it until these wack jobs are removed.
just a thought, just a thought

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(5)

pxamerican3

10:59PM Feb 9th 2010

Switching to the bottle? Sound like a quitter to me. Or committing suicide. People just give up living. Well, we may go thru some hard times for a while. Just lose your materialism and you should be okay.

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(4)

crossrabbswitch

11:29PM Feb 9th 2010

And only the governor's friends and contributors will be able to get a license. This idea is nothing but laying the groundwork for even more corrupt government.

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(5)

sgentilejr

1:48AM Feb 10th 2010

They just DON'T GET IT AND THEY NEVER WILL.
Our nation___ our states____and our citizens are all in trouble because we all spend far too much money___ BEFORE we actually earn it. SPEND, SPEND, SPEND is what got us into this mess. Looking for more money to spend, spend, spend will not get us out of this mess and instead spending more will only serve to get us in a deeper hole. Sadly only the pot smoking foreign born Governor of California gets it____the states must cut back on their spending instead of looking for new ways to tax We the People and further pick our pockets.

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(4)

davidl7082

3:24AM Feb 10th 2010

How about the states cutting 25% of their useless employees for starters and if that does not balance the budget, cut another 10%. Really takes a genius to raise taxes. How about a $5,000 tax on every unwed welfare mother that has a baby?

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THE VOICE

3:32AM Feb 10th 2010

This is a state issue and the people of the states will react the way they want to about it. If people don't want to buy the stuff they don't have to, if they want to change the law, change the reps.

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(3)

nos2001

8:47PM Feb 13th 2010

WHY HAS AOL CUT OF COMMENTS ON ANYTHING POLITICS. AOL, YOUR BIAS IS SO OVIOUS... DID OBAMA ORDER YOU TO STOP US FROM COMMENTING? COMMENTS WORK BUT NOT ON ANYTHING POILITICAL... NO WONDER AOL IS GOING THE WAY OF AIR AMERICA.

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(2)

lswisher67

7:38AM Feb 18th 2010

david7082 that is a good idea and what kind of tax do you propose for deadbeat dads that leave mom and kids forcing them into the welfare system which also requires our tax dollars??

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william

11:46AM Feb 18th 2010

its about time that all the politicians that get over a certain level of income and benefits from the job and under the table kickbacks have to pay a high percentage tax.They seem to think all us peons can support them with their high expense tabs.Its time to make them start paying till it hurts in the pocketbook.Someone should come up with a new way to figure the COLA that they used to figure that Social Security should get no increase this year.

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