Governor Bob McDonnell will hold a series of town hall meetings across the state beginning August 4. Dubbed the “Virginia Speaks” tour, the series will allow citizens to speak directly to the Governor and members of his cabinet and administration. The only Hampton Roads stop is scheduled for Monday, August 9, from 7pm to 8:30pm in the Hampton/Newport News room at ODU’s Webb Center.
One of the topics to be discussed is the privatization of liquor stores. This Washington Post article says that the governor’s staff is looking into four ways to accomplish this:
The options are: selling all of the state’s alcohol assets to a single outfit; offering licenses to the 3,000 businesses that sell beer and wine; having firms take over the state’s 332 existing stores; and auctioning an undetermined number of licenses to the highest bidder.
Interesting to me is that I’ve noticed an uptick in the number of stores in Norfolk requesting off-premises alcohol sales permits, most notably Walgreen’s. Years ago, it was rumored that the proliferation of drug stores in our city was connected to the possibility that alcohol sales would be privatized at some point.
While I’m ambivalent about whether or not the state should be in the liquor business, I am concerned about how, given the economic conditions, the state recoups the money currently flowing into the general fund. So I’ll be attending this meeting to listen and learn. Hope to see you there!
VIVIAN J. PAIGE | All Politics is Local 
Let me repost a snippet from my comment on the Social Security numbers issue:
“There is very little that the government should be allowed to do but the citizens cannot. It is ridiculous to say the State can run liquor stores, but citizens cannot; that the State can run lotteries, but the citizens cannot….”
Obviously, the State cannot compete with private industry in liquor sales (which is why so many people in NOVA go to Maryland), or it would not have to make private liquor sales illegal. Thus, we are paying inflated prices for liquor.
What REALLY galls me is that the b@stard$ charge SALES TAX on that jacked-up price, which INCLUDES a 20% excise tax! (A tax on a tax!)
The obvious way to recoup some of the revenue that currently comes from overcharging the State’s alcoholics is to increase the excise tax on liquor.