In michigan we have a government department called the liqour control board. It is their job to regulate prices, liscence party stores and bars,collect a bunch of taxes and tell the people of MI which booze is not allowed into our state.

It is my opinion that they should be defunded and shut down. It seems to me that they are little more than the result of a pathological clinging to the old prohibition era desire to regulate people's private lives. their existence drives up the cost of havin' a beer. limits who can open bars and party stores, weakens the ability of restraunts to compete with established chains, wastes tax dollars, and as part of the nanny state structure generaly pisses me off.

How many of you have a similar government branch? what is the best way to go about eliminating them? Is it even possible?

Yeah, we have the Maine State Liquor Commission......... they license who can sell booze and tax the living shit out of them. They are the State's cash cows.

They are an indestructable entity. The way things are going, they may have the Noble Weed to regulate and tax too!

The Washington State Liquor Control Board kinda pisses me off. They aren't open that late. They close early on saturday. They are closed on sunday. WTF? the weekend is when people buy the most booze anyway. seriously. if you work a normal job you have to run straight to the liquor store after work just to get a little slice of heaven.

Since all booze sold in WA is sold by the state government it basically funds all the programs and shit around here. Correct me if i'm wrong but isn't Alcohol one of the staple expenditures in a recession? (i'll save you the thought process, it is one of the few industries that sees very little change, along with fast/comfort foods).

Seeings how WA is also having a hard time w/ its budgets for the past few fiscal years isn't it about time to possibly add a little bit more to the Sin Tax and probably stay open a whole lot later? I would say yes.

When has more revenue for a State Government been a bad thing?

Florida has it mostly right. The worst part about it is each County has control over how long and what days liquor is sold. For example, when i lived there I lived in both Hillsborough and Polk Counties. One sells liquor till 2am the other 3am. There was even a bar on the county line called "The Twilight Zone" that scared the SHIT outa me.. but everyone would RUSH there because they sold booze an hour after the bars closed.

seriously.

they made money hand over fist there.

Basically where i lived i could go to a liquor store till at least 2am 365 days a year because they didn't close for holidays.

fucking wallgreens had liquor stores.

you couldn't walk anywhere without finding a place that sold you booze..

i sorta miss that.

I have a rant that would take up pages when it comes to the Liquor Control Board of Ontario.

I will start with this tidbit:
LCBO bans Dan Akroyd Vodka

If you read into the article...OTHER Control Boards in Canada have no problem with the packaging.

I fucking hate the LCBO

Rant more later

canadians should drink anything akroyd makes.

on further examination that bottle is fucking sick. i want some now.

agreed

kinda want to buy a bunch of em drink em and refill the bottles with assorted food colorings.

Not long ago the NH Liquor Commissioner got popped with a DUI...

it seems like it would be an easier sell to abolish liqour control boards and or state liquor taxes in states which either:
1. are small
2 have medium to large cities on or near their borders
3 share a border with canada

the reasons i am thinking of are pretty much the same for all three situations.
the first making interstate travel to save a coupla bucks per bottle of hooch more likely.

The second being travel for theater or shopping usualy involves dinning. if the taxes are removed people will probably travel to states without booze nazis more often generating more business , more opportunities for business, more sales tax revenue and more than likely more income tax revenue.

The northern border city argument is a little different. canadians are a bunch of drunks