Related: The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Ruling Party
The Perils of One-Party Politics: Massachusetts' Democracy
I can see where they start stumbling around, yeah.
Also see: The Perils of One-Party Politics: The Problem
Having Tea With Charlie Baker
You see why, right?
I do not drink, so I do not care.
If you really push my buttons; however, I will call for the reinstatement of prohibition. Works for all the other drugs, so why not put it on cigarette$ and booZe?
And what is the first thing a drunken legislator does?
Yeah, you got it: TAX SOMETHING!
"State’s liquor stores feeling ill effects of taxes, downturn; Buyers trading down, going to N.H." by Liza Weisstuch, Globe Correspondent | February 28, 2010
Spirits have not been high in Massachusetts lately.
The recession has many consumers trading down from pricier premium brands to more budget-friendly spirits. That, coupled with a new tax on alcohol that has spurred some Bay State residents to cross the border to buy in tax-free New Hampshire, has hurt sales at some liquor stores.
Maybe I should go up and get a 12-pack tonight, just for the hell of it.
It's only 10 minutes away.
To be sure,
Remember, readers, that is a lying, agenda-pushing, pro-tax (and they wouldn't want egg on their face) paper telling you how "undoubtedly certain" is what they are to say next.
the volume of alcohol sales in the state has remained pretty steady since Aug. 1, when Massachusetts began charging a 6.25 percent sales tax on purchases of alcohol at liquor stores, according to officials.
Which means they have dropped.
But still some liquor stores say their businesses are suffering because of the new tax....
Always a BUT, SOME, YET, STILL, sigh.
Nationwide, after a decade of growth, volume sales of alcohol have remained steady, with the decline in sales of premium brands being offset by an increase in sales of lower-end spirits.
Gee, you would figure with the declining living standards, foreclosures, and job losses we would be tossing 'em back like crazy, huh?
Oh, right, NO MONEY!
In deed, volume sales of higher-end spirits fell as much as 5.1 percent in the past year, while volume sales of value brands grew 5.5 percent, according to figures released in February by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States....
“While the spirits industry may be recession-resilient, it’s not recession-proof,’’ said Ben Jenkins, spokesman for the trade group. “As in previous recessions, consumers last year traded down to less expensive products and this hurt the hospitality industry all across the country.’’
Oh, I see; you bought rot gut or watered-down beer.
I'll tell you, if you took Americans' beer away the streets would be filled in a minute. Americans don't give a s*** about lies, wars begotten of lies, lies that beget looting, and round and round we go!
But threaten their beer and watch 'em take a stand!
As part of the Massachusetts’ budget package signed in June 2009, the Legislature raised the state’s overall sales tax from 5 percent to 6.25 percent to compensate for budget shortfalls, and it eliminated the sales-tax exemption on alcohol sold in liquor stores. Officials have estimated that taxing liquor will raise nearly $80 million for the cash-strapped state.
Yup, and yet we are still facing service cuts after they sold us the increase by saying it would preserve services with no more cuts.
This as the tax money goes for interest payments on debt owed to banks, corporate subsidies for special interests, and politicians padding their own health and pension plans.
But to read that Globe paragraph above it makes it seem like it is the poor state and not the strapped citizen. It's sad. It's really sad, readers.
Bob Bliss, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Department of Revenue, said sales tax collected on alcoholic beverages from August through December “exceeded expectations by about $10 million.’’
Was he drunk when he said that?
Sigh.
They would lie to God himself if he was standing two feet in front of them!!
In January alone, according to the department’s data, taxes on alcohol products brought in about $14.4 million, which is $2.3 million above projections. And the department said that in the five months after the law took effect, volume of sales was up by almost a percent over the same period the prior year.
Like we are SUPPOSED to BELIEVE their SELF-SERVING, attempt to rationalize their continuous assault on the public's wallet?
While the state is reaping the additional revenues, Jenkins, of the distilled spirits trade group, said the tax adds up to less money in consumers’ pockets. He said more than half the cost of a bottle of spirits already goes to state and federal excise taxes and liquor-store fees.
More like raping, Globe. I think I need a drink, though!
“A lot of consumers don’t realize they’ve been paying that much in taxes already,’’ said Frank Anzalotti, executive director of the Massachusetts Package Stores Association, which represents the majority of 2,000 independent liquor stores statewide. The group, which had predicted that taxing alcohol would cause sales at liquor stores to plunge and cost hundreds of jobs, sought to stop the tax when it was proposed in June....
Yeah, most people are not paying attention and don't even know they are being poked. They just fork over the dough.
Even discount stores are feeling the pinch....
Why if SALES are FLAT?!
Of course, not every liquor store is experiencing a decline. Stores farther from the New Hampshire border may be feeling less of a strain....
They MAY BE?
Keep those fingers crossed, 'eh, Globe!?
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I almost feel drunk from reading the paper each day, readers. Leaves me in a state of wretched disappointment and near vomiting.
All right, let's head on up the hill.
"On the Hill, a license to delay; A legislative gauntlet for towns seeking new bars, restaurants" by Donovan Slack, Globe Staff | April 4, 2010
WAREHAM —The town ran into a three-year road block: the Massachusetts Legislature.
Like scores of communities, Wareham came face to face with a Prohibition-era law that requires cities and towns to win State House permission before issuing new liquor licenses. And like leaders in many communities, Wareham officials repeatedly appealed to a legislative committee with little stake in, or knowledge of, their town.
“It’s the brick wall of doom up there,’’ said Cindy Parola, a former Wareham selectwoman.
A Globe review of legislative records shows a capricious system that has given some communities what they request in weeks while making others wait years. Others never win approval at all, and communities complain that decisions seem to hinge less on clear criteria or sound reasoning than on the whims of legislators.
That's the Massachusetts I know and love! We got gambling now!
A gubernatorial task force recently concluded the Legislature should get out of the liquor license business altogether, saying it adds little to what communities already do on their own and that the process distracts lawmakers from important statewide matters. But legislation introduced last year to return authority to municipalities has gone nowhere....
Yeah, when it is SOMETHING YOU WANT, constituency, it GOES NOWHERE!
But they RUSH THROUGH whatever bill the interested lobby wrote for them.
Defenders of the Legislature’s role say that Beacon Hill provides a crucial check on local leaders who might be prone to ignore local opposition....
If that isn't the legislative pot hollering kettle!!!!!
And they wonder why we are pissed and ready to vote every single one out of office.
Beacon Hill has regulated the number of licenses that cities and towns can hand out since 1933, when a Yankee-controlled Legislature, distrusting local elected officials and fueled by Puritan beliefs about alcohol, instituted limits on licenses and required the passage of legislation to increase them.
But bars and restaurants serving alcohol are now widely seen as quality-of-life boosters, and communities across the state routinely bump up against the state-imposed limits, driving them to Beacon Hill.
The stream of local requests — which come in the form of home rule petitions — is now larger than ever....
The high demand for licenses gave rise in 2008 to one of the more notorious corruption cases in state history. A Roxbury nightclub manager cooperating with the FBI paid thousands of dollars in alleged bribes to former state senator Dianne Wilkerson in exchange for help getting a license, federal authorities allege....
While Wareham waits, unemployment has climbed, and the hotel and conference center, along with the 360 jobs it was to provide, has stalled for want of a license. The handful of restaurants that opened with town assurances that liquor licenses would soon be coming are struggling.
Ella’s Wood Burning Oven Restaurant, which opened in April 2008, is scraping by with a seasonal license that allows it to serve wine and cocktails during summer months. The rest of the year, waiters apologetically offer root beer and Pellegrino and customers have been relatively scarce.
Another restaurant, The Onset Bay Blues Cafe, gave up waiting and shut its doors in November 2008.
“We just had to walk away,’’ owner Grant MacConnell said. “They just left us hanging in the breeze. We lost a chunk of change and it put us out of business.’’
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"Legislature is drunk on power to control liquor licenses
IF LOCAL officials and town-meeting members in Wareham think their community needs more liquor licenses, the town should be able to issue them without bowing and scraping on Beacon Hill. Instead, as the Globe reported earlier this month, the Legislature has unfairly held up the South Coast town’s plan to revitalize itself by adding restaurants, nightspots, and hotel and convention space. Liquor licenses are a quintessentially local matter, or at least they should be.
Of course, the Globe doesn't feel that way on a whole range of other issues that fall into the same category, but I'm letting it go.
State lawmakers are in no position to decide whether more licenses will help or hurt the quality of life in a community. The Legislature should get out of the liquor-licensing business altogether....
I know. I wish they would just leave us alone.
Ooops, there goes another tax increase!
But they can slam through casinos and slots because the speaker has a self-serving interest and all the other BS they come up with over there.
Morrissey told the Globe that the Legislature offers a needed check on the decisions of local officials who might ignore local opposition. Yet the state Alcoholic Beverages Control Commission already does that.
Yeah, and the Legislature is pretty good at IGNORING US, so WTF?!!
In any case, local decisions about liquor licensing deserve great deference.
Yes, but only on this one issue.
Municipal officials in Wareham are far more accountable to that town’s residents than legislators from Quincy or Danvers are....
Right; legi$lator$ are accountable to you know what, readers!
The Legislature’s involvement in local licensing matters isn’t just an unnecessary barrier; it also invites political corruption, as the criminal case against former state Senator Dianne Wilkerson suggests.
I don't want to find the skanky link, readers.
The likelihood of bribery multiplies when a licensing system is complicated and arcane, and when business owners think they need a special in to get an application approved.
What the hell do you think is going on in the halls of power with their lobbyists and outside those halls with the fund-raising?!!!
Oh, that's "legal."
In Wilkerson's case, you got a two-fer.
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Of course, some of them are just plain drunk.
Also see: Mass. Lawmaker Boozes Up On Bathroom Break in New Hampshire
