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Thursday, January 25, 2007
Beer, caskets and wine
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
The Georgia Chamber of Commerce weighs in Sunday beer sales, siding with a convenience store industry that has been pushing for authority to sell beer and wine seven days a week. A bill sponsored by State Sen. Seth Harp (R-Midland) would allow voters in each city or county to decide. Gov. Sonny Perdue declared last week that the proposal would have a “tough time getting the last vote.”
This is, admittedly, not a hot-button issue with me. Mostly it annoys me that the General Assembly finds its time consumed year after year with agendas brought by business, professional or special interest groups. That’s an essential part of its job, certainly. And I don’t fault industry groups for attempting to use regulation and law to gain an advantage over competitiors. What bothers me most is that legislators should be looking at liquor laws, for example, and deciding which provisions are outdated, anti-competitive or monopolistic.
A California retailer, Trader Joe’s, came to town with a prized marketing attraction, a wine, Charles Shaw, more commonly known as “two-buck Chuck.” Here it has to go through a distributor and be offered to competitors, thus losing its earned advantage. That’s an improper use of government regulation. If Trader Joe’s invested in a product and grew its appeal, it shouldn’t be forced as a condition of doing buisness in Georgia to have a distributorship or to make its product available to competitors. Kroger, to its credit, has found a decent wine competitor in Nathanson Creek, which it sells for $2.97. So does Aldi. Others should, too.
The point here is that legislators should be scouring through the laws and regulations to eliminate those that no longer serve the public interest, if they ever did. One other example in an unrelated industry: State Rep. Chuck Sims (R-Douglas), a mortician, proposes to eliminate a requirement that funeral homes have eight caskets on display in a showroom. It is thoroughly outdated, whatever its original purpose — which most likely was something the industry brought forth to keep out smaller competitors. The reality now is that consumers can find an array of offerings available on the Internet at considerable savings, caskets that can be delivered the next day. We don’t need to see even one casket. Show us the video.
In the spirit of the chamber’s proposal, maybe we should allow every city and county in Georgia to decide which laws and regulations affecting business or the environment should apply locally.
I hate the approach that passes the buck to cities and counties. It’s another subject, but if we wish to go that route, why not pass a constitutional amendment that will allow real public initiative so that voters can write their own laws? I’m for that. Why wait for the General Assembly to put a lid on taxes and spending, which it may never do? Give the people that authority and we could have a spending lid by 2010.
Either they make the routine public policy decisions for the state of Georgia — or we do.
