Many Mainers may appreciate Gov. Paul LePage’s businesslike approach to government.
But we should speak loudly and clearly that cutting the cost of hard liquor in order to boost state revenue would be foolish and counterproductive.
Gary Reid, director of the Maine Bureau of Alcoholic Beverages and Lottery Operations, told a state legislative committee Wednesday that reducing the price of alcoholic beverages would benefit consumers and those who sell alcohol at the retail level.
That’s the kind of consumer activism Maine can ill afford.
Reid told the Legislature’s Committee on Veterans and Legal Affairs, which oversees alcoholic beverage sales, that he hopes to obtain $40 million a year for Maine by ending a contract the state awarded in 2003 to a Massachusetts company to import and distribute hard liquor here.
Rumors have swirled for weeks that the LePage administration has a secret plan to pay off the state’s debt to Maine hospitals, which totals between $150 and $190 million.
That at least would benefit the state’s hospitals and get taxpayers out from under a large and embarrassing obligation incurred by previous governors and Legislatures.
And that might very well be a worthy use for additional liquor revenue. But making it cheaper and easier to obtain another bottle of coffee brandy or vodka is not.
Attention has focused in recent months on Maine’s highest-in-the-nation treatment rate for prescription painkillers. More Mainers now die from prescription drug overdoses than in car accidents.
But that extremely worrisome problem should not obscure the fact that alcohol abuse remains the state’s most serious drug problem.
Alcohol costs Maine businesses millions of dollars a year not only in health care costs but in lost time and worker productivity.
Alcohol plays a role in a very high proportion of domestic violence, violent crime and motor vehicle arrests.
The abusive use of alcohol has destroyed families and lives in all corners of the state, and boosts Medicare and Medicaid spending.
From a business standpoint, Reid recognizes that many Mainers buy cheaper booze in New Hampshire, which has set up several large discount stores to attract interstate traffic coming to and leaving Maine.
This is the sort of cynical revenue-raising tactic that New Hampshire legislators are famous for.
But most Mainers are not running to New Hampshire for their next bottle of Allen’s Coffee Brandy. They go to their local grocery store, drugstore or convenience store.
Reid says Maine’s prices are $2 to $7 higher than New Hampshire’s. That means the retail price would drop significantly all over Maine, again encouraging more consumption.
If there is an unrealized pot of gold connected to Maine’s liquor business, reimbursing Maine’s hospitals as quickly as possible would be a far better use of the money.
Some of that unpaid-for-care was no doubt delivered to people suffering from the effects of alcohol abuse.
Sun Journal, Lewiston (Sept. 7)
well if cheap booze ends up costing the state more then 42million it was a bad deal.
The problem with protectionist Nannystaters is they have very poor critical thinking.
The people who abuse alcohol are just like the people who abuse “hard drugs”. If they are addicted and/or using drugs/alcohol or even tobacco to cope with their problems or self medicate they are going to use no mater what. They will use it if you tell them its bad for them, if you increase the price, or just flat out ban and criminalize the substance.
Because these people can always find a way to make/acquire more money to support their habbit i.e. selling some drugs, stealing/pawning things, welfare, or in rare case work an extra job or odd jobs. If you criminalize it while there is still a demand for it then it drives buyers/sellers to black markets which creates health risks associated with dealing with the violent organized crime individuals.
Here is where the REAL critical thinking comes into play. Who do you think isn’t buying alcohol because its expensive? Irresponsible alcohol addicts with out of control problems? No way, its the responsible workaday guys and gals like me. I love a scotch in the evening when I get home from work but @ $20-30 a bottle for the cheaper/mid shelf stuff I can’t justify that over something like more wholesome food or gas in my car.
When I lived in NH I frequently took advantage of the low tax free prices @ the state liquor stores. I also would watch sales and buy things I liked ahead of time.
Now I like everyone else do not require liquor to live and it should be considered a luxury and maybe just a financial drain waste by some but… point being lower prices stimulate sales. I think the initial switch over with this plan would set record sales in maine and I dont think it would set record alcohol related arrests and incidents due to the fact those individuals who can’t control themselves are already going to be drinking anyhow.
I am sure it will make all the active alcoholics happy. Of all the things that we need to have lowered prices on, alcohol is the last on the list. I believe that this will just add to alcohol related problems in Maine. But time will tell for sure.
NH has cheap booze and they have no more alcohol related problems than maine.
trying to corelate alcohol related incidents to the price of alcohol is like correlating the rate of automobile accidents to the price of gasoline. or the rate of obesity to the price of food.
Price keeps going up via inflation (though median incomes drop or remain constant) and price goes up because of demand. People who need/want things will find ways to pay for them and use them. Look at smoking for example price increases via taxes were made to try to reduce smoking and it had little effect. What reduced or is reducing smoking is better education and wise personal choices on the matter.
The LePage administration is raising prescription drug prices in Maine by blocking the importation of U.S. made drugs from Canada. How about blocking all non U.S. made alcohol? …..Yeah, sure. When the State ran the liquor stores we made millions a year, provided jobs to Mainers and kept the profits in state.
Toss the contracts and reopen the state stores, hire Mainers to work in them, and keep the money.