When state plays with profits, citizens lose
An organization called Modernize Washington has filed paperwork for an initiative that seeks to end the state’s monopoly on selling and distributing alcohol and tobacco products [“State’s control of liquor may be challenged,” NWSaturday, April 17].
These products have been proved dangerous to the health of citizens; alcohol-related traffic fatalities continue to mount. Rather than promoting and peddling these dangerous products, the Washington State Liquor Control Board (LCB) should proactively discourage their use.
The 1933 Steele Act (Washington State Liquor Act) authorized the state to create the LCB to regulate the sale and distribution of alcohol during the problematic, post-Prohibition era. What has evolved is a large bureaucratic entity that is apparently more concerned about profit than the health and safety of citizens. State liquor stores number in the hundreds and the LCB website once boasted of generating more than $140 million in profit annually.
The necessity is now obsolete; only 18 states still have LCBs. Regulatory responsibility should be remanded back to legislative committees that would oversee a scaled-down commission, with funds redistributed to the counties for enforcement.
It is not likely that our Legislature, with its proven insatiable desire to raise taxes, would do anything to end its cash cow monopoly.
— Kerry Watkins, Everett