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Thanks to Washington"s liberal initiative laws, voters hereget to be just like politicians, for better and for worse. Better because it is empowering to decide what passes and whatfails. Worse because, just like legislators, voters might have tocompromise to get something passed. That"s what happened with Initiative 1183, which shiftsWashington from a so-called liquor-control state to privatedistribution and sales. Except the initiative that kicks in Fridayisn"t an example of pure free enterprise and probablywon"t lead to lower prices. The reason? Compromises. And these compromises weren"tcrafted by those sneaky legislators in Olympia. They were craftedby the corporate sponsors and their consultants, then approved byvoters. I-1182, adopted in 2011, is the offspring of I-1100, defeated in2010. The consultants advised that if liquor privatization were topass on its second try, it had to be changed to disarm opponents. In 2010, I-1100 opponents succeeded by exploiting the specter ofminimart liquor sales and by warning that reducing state profitswould reduce support for government programs, especially publicsafety. So the second Costco-drafted and -funded measure said stores had tobe at least 10,000 square feet to sell liquor. I-1183 also imposednew fees to replace the profits collected by the state. Backerseven lined up their own firefighters and pretend firefighters tocombat the opponents" firefighters and pretend firefighters. The measure was compromised to attract more votes. But the changeswere so broad they risked chasing away core supporters –those who either believe in privatization on principle or whoassumed it would produce cheaper booze. So proponents didn"t talk much about price, relying insteadon buzz phrases such as free enterprise and competition in hopesvoters would assume that meant cheaper spirits. Opponents were so intent on trying to reanimate the dead issues ofcorner liquor stores and cuts to public safety that theydidn"t run with the fact that the new initiative might haveno effect on Washington"s notoriously high prices. The state Office of Financial Management did an analysis suggestingprices might actually increase because of the fees imposed byI-1183 and the fact that private sellers want a profit, too. It turns out private sellers in California – the Holy Grailof privatization – have higher average markups than themarkups imposed by the state under our old system. Prices inWashington were higher not because of inefficiencies of the statemonopoly but because our lawmakers placed much higher taxes onbooze than their California counterparts. All of those taxes stayin place under I-1183. The OFM study was buried in the small print of the voters pamphlet.News articles detailing the math were dismissed as evidence ofanti-I-1183 bias. The campaign strategy worked. Backers only needed to move a fewpercentage points to alter the result. They gained 12 points andhad an easy, though expensive, victory. Now they have to deal with the inevitable anger of many voters whothought they were voting for lower prices. When the curtains comeoff the liquor shelves Friday, some consumers will be looking forsomeone to blame, and it won"t be themselves. So corporate backers must now re-engage their spin machines,tossing out various excuses for high prices such as that theprivate sellers are installing higher markups either because theycan or because they are trying to recover start-up costs quickly.Some are even blaming the state for passing rules that follow theinitiative"s dictates. When all else fails, they assure us that markups and prices willcome down as the new system settles out and competition is sparked. Maybe. But it might just be that the initiative was crafted to winthe election and to transfer profits from the state to privatesellers – not to lower prices for consumers. peter.callaghan@thenewstribune.com 253-597-8657 blog.thenewstribune.com/politics @CallaghanPeter. I am an expert from seamless-steelpipes.com, while we provides the quality product, such as China Thick Wall Steel Tubing , Stock Pipes, Seamless Alloy Steel Pipes,and more.
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