ABC Sales: Dis-Spiriting

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine is an exceptionally smart individual, and an exceptionally articulate man as well. As a lawyer, he is trained to state a case. As a political leader, he knows the intricacies of public policy.

So it is telling that even he can't make a decent argument on behalf of preserving the state's monopoly on hard liquor sales.

GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell has proposed privatizing ABC stores. The other day on a radio call-in show, Kaine explained why he disagreed with the suggestion. While conceding, "I don't think the state needs to be in the liquor sales business," Kaine noted that the state makes money from it -- $111 million in profit last year. But if the sales were privatized, then Virginians might drink more hard spirits, he argued: Virginians drink less liquor than the national average, but drink about the same quantities of beer and wine as others around the country. (Beer and wine are available at grocery, convenience, and specialty stores.)

Some questions occur.

--(1)If the state does not need to be in the liquor business, then is $111 million in revenue -- 15 one-hundredths of 1 percent of the state budget -- sufficient reason to do what it shouldn't?

--(2)Why couldn't Virginia privatize the ABC, and simultaneously raise taxes on hard spirits to recoup the lost $111 million -- which also would have the effect of discouraging consumption? States manage to both reap revenue and discourage smoking by heavily taxing cigarettes. Why can't Virginia do the same with booze?

--(3)Why does the state want to discourage the consumption of some forms of alcohol but not others?

--(4)Kaine seems to be suggesting that state control has something to do with Virginians' lower-than-national-average consumption of hard spirits. But do other states that also have some form of state control over hard liquor have lower rates of hard-liquor consumption?

--(5)How much are Virginia consumption statistics skewed by the fact that Northern Virginians take advantage of the lower prices in D.C. and Maryland -- and buy there?

--(6)If there is no correlation between private or government sale of hard liquor and rates of alcohol-related problems such as binge drinking and underage drinking -- and there is not: Control state Vermont has a higher rate of underage drinking than non-control Nevada; Oregon, a control state, has a rate of binge drinking among women of child-bearing age nearly three times that of Kentucky, a non-control state -- then what difference does it make where Virginians buy their liquor?

--(7)If the Democratic candidate for governor, Creigh Deeds, had proposed privatizing ABC stores, then would Kaine -- currently chairman of the Democratic National Committee -- have argued so strongly against the idea?

The likely answer to the last question explains why the debate over de-spiriting the commonwealth is often so dispiriting.