In a sales tax reliant state where we recently voted privatize and tax the poop out of liquor sales, there are high taxes on hard alcohol. This PI piece seems to forget that we just taxed ourselves, not as punishment to boozehounds, but to replace the revenue that privatization cost the state. You can get booze at your grocery store, but you have to pay higher taxes. It wasn’t a deal that I was comfortable with, but the voters went ahead with it. So, fine.
I would like a little more context than just complaining:
And, when it comes to increasing taxes to fund said government, it’s easier to get people to agree to a sin tax. You know, we’re supposed to feel bad about doing it and thus willing to punish ourselves: Bad drinker! Bad drinker! Barkeep – pour me another one! Also … add in the extra tax burden placed on booze for these first few years of privatization, and you have a recipe for a winning statistic.
There’s a reasonable debate to be had about the level of alcohol taxes we have. I’m just not sure this contributes to that.
I assume you mean “sales tax-reliant” and were just wishfully thinking in that first sentence there.
Other than that, yes.
I’ll bet the voters who thought they would get cheaper liquor from private stores are wishing they had the state stores now.
I do mis the State stores. I don’t buy much booze. I go through a couple bottles of single-malt a year and maybe a bottle of Vodka.
But not that brand.
It wasn’t even that the prices were better, which they were, but that I could always find what I wanted. A most excellent variety of good Scotch Whisky.
Wish I could afford it now.
The private operations don’t carry nearly the variety. And for Noodley’s sake, do NOT buy the Trader Joe’s brand. Yuck.
@1,
Thanks Nick. Fixed. WordPress ate my post this morning, and when I went to redo it at lunch, I must have posted an earlier draft. Should have checked that. It’s also more anti-this article than the attitude behind it than I was going for, but I’ll leave that.
So, did anyone really believe Costco spent all that money and effort on getting this Initiative passed so that Costco could charge less for booze? Anyone who did must have been seriously plastered.
Given how Washington state now has a craft-distillery movement to rival our craft-beer movement, think outside the big box, and buy your spirits directly from the distiller.
@3 At least under the old system I could see the inventory of every store in the state so I knew where to go if I wanted something obscure. BevMO, TotalWine, and WineWorld almost make up for that lost convenience.
Supposedly same people who ran the old ClearView contract store are running a store in the same location with a huge collection of single malt and other hard to find spirits.
oops…wrong thread