That Washington
Conservative Blogger Stefan Sharkansky Helped Draft Booze Initiative
Yesterday, we linked the text of the tandem alcohol retail privatization initiatives that were filed with the Secretary of State on Friday
. We were able to get a comment from the main group that's been fighting privatization, the United Food and Commercial Workers 21, but we were still playing phone tag with Modernize Washington, the mystery campaign behind the filing.
I say "mystery campaign" because when we placed calls to the filer's phone number (listed with the Secretary of State), we kept getting calls back from a political consultant, Sharon Gilpin—mostly known for the revote campaign after the contested 2004 gubernatorial election betweeen Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi.
The mystery hasn't been solved—Gilpin, to whom we talked to this morning, refused to say who she's working for ("I don't have permission"), but we did confirm that conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky helped write the initiatives. "We asked his opinion," Gilpin said. "We flew it by a number of people." The woman who filed the initiative, Taekja Moon Song, has the same last name as Sharkansky's wife.
Sharkansky has certainly written about the issue on his site. He refused to talk to me about this when I called him yesterday.
The initiative would take the Washington Liquor Control Board out the business of selling booze. The WSLCB would still issue retailer licenses and do enforcement—including regulating price controls (producers and distributors are not allowed to sell booze at different prices to different retail outlets.)
The state liquor tax, 10 percent, would still be in place, but the state's current $26 per gallon markup (which they add on after they buy it from producers and distributors) would be out of the equation.
As for the $300 million that the state takes in annually from booze sales, Gilpin points to a report by the state auditor's office that says getting the WSCLB out of the alcohol sales business will save the state $200 to $300 million in the next two years by eliminating the infrastructure required to sell booze and getting rid of the distribution center where liquor is warehoused.
"This law was written 70 years ago, during Prohibition," Gilpin says.
Another privatization initiative is aslo reportedly in the works.
I say "mystery campaign" because when we placed calls to the filer's phone number (listed with the Secretary of State), we kept getting calls back from a political consultant, Sharon Gilpin—mostly known for the revote campaign after the contested 2004 gubernatorial election betweeen Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi.
The mystery hasn't been solved—Gilpin, to whom we talked to this morning, refused to say who she's working for ("I don't have permission"), but we did confirm that conservative blogger Stefan Sharkansky helped write the initiatives. "We asked his opinion," Gilpin said. "We flew it by a number of people." The woman who filed the initiative, Taekja Moon Song, has the same last name as Sharkansky's wife.
Sharkansky has certainly written about the issue on his site. He refused to talk to me about this when I called him yesterday.
The initiative would take the Washington Liquor Control Board out the business of selling booze. The WSLCB would still issue retailer licenses and do enforcement—including regulating price controls (producers and distributors are not allowed to sell booze at different prices to different retail outlets.)
The state liquor tax, 10 percent, would still be in place, but the state's current $26 per gallon markup (which they add on after they buy it from producers and distributors) would be out of the equation.
As for the $300 million that the state takes in annually from booze sales, Gilpin points to a report by the state auditor's office that says getting the WSCLB out of the alcohol sales business will save the state $200 to $300 million in the next two years by eliminating the infrastructure required to sell booze and getting rid of the distribution center where liquor is warehoused.
"This law was written 70 years ago, during Prohibition," Gilpin says.
Another privatization initiative is aslo reportedly in the works.
