Here's where the state could save hundreds of millions

But, DUH!!! Too bad the voters continue to allow the evil queen and her minions to ruin this state. I wish that all the unions could be declared illegal for government employees, seeing how biased they are against the real boss of our state, us. Seeing how they will violate law, over and over again, and cost the state billions in court battles. Seeing our poor defenseless Governor being forced to walk the union picket lines...oh, the horror... Then, maybe, we'd get some accountability back to our Capitol. Ban unions, end corruption.

You won't catch Chris talking about VA. She'll be talking up the dorks in Oregon who voted themselves more taxes...if only this state could be just as stupid, just one more time...we could fix everything...lol

Marijuana sale and use is going on every single day but it's not building a new 520 bridge or school.

We have booze, gambling, lotto, strip clubs, and corruption up the ying-yang in this state. Sorry, but the vice kitty is full... no room for the doobies here!

I can buy hard liquor, by the drink, at a couple of dozen places within reasonable walking distance of my house. The sale of these distilled spirits by private establishments provides tens of thousands of semi-skilled mixing and serving jobs in this state and the profits provide return on the investment of bar and restaurant owners.

If we saved, according to Dori, "hundreds of millions" of dollars per year by shutting down the state liquor stores, we would need to save over $300-million just to break even with the current model. In 2008, WSLCB stores generated enough profits to pass over $300-million through to virtually every county and reasonably populated city throughout the state. In a privatized model, those profits would go to the liquor store owners- many of whom are out of state. In a privatized model, the $20/hour liquor store employee (who has a couple of bucks left on payday to spend at other stores in the community) would be replaced by a $8/hour private employee who will need to rely on food stamps and other tax payer subsidies just to get by. Again, we'll be subsidizing the starvation-wage private workers while the profits generated by their labors will largely go out of state.

Dori is right, the state does not retain a net profit from liquor stores. Instead, the profits are distributed to local governments. If local governments did not receive the $300-million, either local taxes would go up to replace the money no longer received from the state, or services would be cut. Any guesses which way most county and city govts would go? (mine; local taxes would go up)

Making liquor more available will increase consumption. Giving the mini-wage numbskull behind the register at 7-11 the responsibilty to check ID when a youngish person comes in to buy a 5th of Jack Daniels will increase the number of teenage traffic fatalities. As dangerous as these kids can be driving down the road after drinking 4-5 beers; imagine them behind the wheel after an equal number of tequila shooters.

We have long relied upon grocery and convenience stores to regulate the sale of tobacco and make sure that middle school kids can't buy cigarettes. Anybody driven within a couple of blocks of a middle school lately? How's that tobacco thing working out?

I bet you don't have to hit the green button first when using your debit card in Virginia. Only government can add an extra step to a simple transaction.

Why not point the blame to the union members, they are- after all- the ones in the voter booth. If they're going to blindly follow what their union leader says and not think for themselves, shame on them. It's as sad as someone that votes strictly party-line, or what a talking head on tv tells you to do.

It's tough to understand why so many feel the state has an obligation to pave an easy path for employers, but at the same time the lower the prevailing wage for workers can be manuevered the better off society will be. I guess that's consistent, however. Eliminating most taxes (and the government services they support) would increase private profits in the short run, just as eliminating the minimum wage and replacing thousands of $8/hr jobs with $5/hour jobs would do the same.

We need more visionary capitalists like Henry Ford. Henry Ford understood that the primary mission of enlightened management is to increase efficiency and productivity, not merely drive wages down to increase the gap between labor cost and output. Henry Ford's theory was that the workers in his factories should be able to afford to buy the cars they were building.

This liq

This liquor store situation is a super example of competing philosophies. On one hand, we have people earning middle class incomes working in state liquor stores. Their entire salaries are paid by taxpayers, but they generate enough income to send $300-million per year to local governments.

If we replace them with $8/ hour private employees, the taxpayers will be on the hook for food stamps, public housing, the increased DSHS services associated with poverty, subsidized child care for working parents, etc; and all of those expenses will merely allow the private employers to continue to pay inadequate wages and increase their apparent profits. The taxpayers of Washington State will be subsidizing the underpaid employees, while the artificially inflated profits will often be directed to out-of-state corporate owners.

. . . is there the language that mandates and compels the state to operate and control liquor sales in volume? Any pointers or links? Not the WAC or the RCW, state constitution.