State Rep. Paul Opsommer, R-DeWitt, today questioned a new plan\u00a0to increase state coffers by reducing the number of legally authorized liquor distributors in the state down to one, a move that would in effect create a state-sanctioned monopoly.
\nAlthough details are incomplete, under one scenario the “winning” distributor would be allowed to stay in business by paying the state a large lump sum that would then go toward balancing the budget.\u00a0 What would happen to the other distributors, and their jobs, has yet to be addressed.
\n“There are far too many examples of private-public partnerships being created that give the illusion of government and private businesses working together when in actuality it is just the state picking winners and losers and creating an environment that can easily lead to corruption,” said Opsommer.\u00a0 “If anything we should be encouraging more competition, not less.\u00a0 If the only reason the governor is considering this is because Michigan is strapped for cash than this proposal is going to be viewed as nothing less than a political shakedown very quickly.”\u00a0
\nOpsommer is pressing for additional details, but Lansing insiders are speculating that the “price” to stay in business may be as high as $75 million in exchange for the remaining distributor getting exclusivity to be the sole shipper in the state over the course of a multi-year contract.
\n“Simply put, state government should not be authorizing private monopolies,” said Opsommer. \u00a0 “There is a good reason to have at least two large players in this field to make sure neither one is able to create new fees or rules that could hurt restaurants and other businesses, a move that would increase prices that would ultimately be borne by customers and taxpayers.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
State Rep. Paul Opsommer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17579","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17579","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17579\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stjindy.com\/archive1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}