By Slade Blackwell
Over the last few weeks, Mac Gipson, the administrator of Alabama’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, has been telling anyone who will listen that removing the state of Alabama from the retail liquor business would have a broad range of negative consequences for Alabamians.
Unfortunately, Gipson’s arguments leave out one of the most glaring aspects of Alabama’s unique way of distributing spirits: Alabama already licenses around 550 private package stores.
Senate Bill 115 would end ABC’s role as a retailer of alcohol, but the state only runs 176 stores. With all the talk about “privatizing” ABC’s retail operations in Alabama, the fact that the state has more than three times as many private retailers of liquor than state-run stores has been lost in the shuffle. The argument that somehow privatizing ABC would lead to a broad array of negative social consequences simply ignores the fact Alabama already licenses so many private stores.
For conservatives interested in keeping our state government lean and focused on core functions, ABC’s retail operations should stick out like a sore thumb. As with most businesses, personnel forms the most significant cost for any state operation. ABC’s retail operations employ more than 600 state workers in a space in which a state presence is not essential.
Eliminating those positions should not be taken lightly, but Alabama’s private sector employees are often subject to similar marketplace changes with far fewer considerations than those included in Senate Bill 115. At a minimum, government employees should not be immune from the same market realities facing Alabama’s average worker.
By significantly reducing its operating costs, ABC should be able to either lower its 30 percent operational markup to the cost of liquor or increase the amount of that markup that goes to support state and local government.
Otherwise, the taxes assessed on liquor sales are roughly equivalent between private stores and ABC stores. If liquor demand remains the same, removing Alabama from the retail liquor operation would likely result in short-term savings that will become much more significant long-term savings as the one-time costs of severing employees are absorbed by the state and those personnel costs are removed.
If we are serious about reducing government in Alabama, we should first ask ourselves what the necessary functions of government really are in the 21st century. Frankly, ABC’s retail operations should not be found on that list for Alabama’s conservative legislators.
Slade Blackwell is serving his second term in the Alabama State Senate representing Jefferson and Shelby counties in District 15. For more information about Slade, visit www.sladeblackwell.com or follow him on Facebook or on Twitter @sladeblackwell. To reach him by phone, call 334-242-7851.