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If the first few town hall meetings are any indication, there doesn’t appear to be a burning public interest in selling off the state’s liquor stores.

A few questions on the topic were raised at the governor’s first town hall meeting in Roanoke—among the eight planned to get ideas on reforming government and to give Gov. Bob McDonnell a chance to explain his plan to turn the state’s liquor monopoly over to the private sector.

Last night, at the event in Chester, four out of about a dozen speakers touched on the subject. Those four were in favor of the idea—half were retailers with potential business opportunities—while a fifth speaker questioned selling licenses in a soured economy.

It was the closest town hall meeting to Richmond, with the rest scattered about the state, and also one of the largest. About 350 people attended, including many members of McDonnell’s Cabinet, a rep from his political operation which worked to turn people out, and lobbyists working in favor of dumping the monopoly.

McDonnell argues that selling distilled spirits is an inappropriate function of government and says that sales of liquor licenses could give the state an initial windfall of $300 million to $500 million for transportation improvements.

As for an apparent lack of widespread public interest, the governor told reporters after the event that “a lot of leadership should come from the governor’s office, that’s why I ran for the office, to put big ideas on the table and to get things done.”

“People that drink distilled spirits probably feel like they’re getting the spirits that they want,” he said. “People that don’t drink probably don’t care where you sell it. But the issue is once you talk to people about why government ought to be out of the business and once you explain to them that you generate a significant amount of money for transportation, people get a lot more interested.”

“They’d certainly rather have us do a free-market approach than have whopping tax increases to pay for roads.”

I see absolutely no need to sell off the VA State Liqour stores. If it ain’t broke, don’t try to fix it.  Pols are always trying to get the genie out of the bottle for some goofy reason.  Remember, VA had state liqour during the depression and they worked well then too!

Under NO CIRCUMSTANCES should the sale of liquor be privatized.  There is no way that the same amount of money can be recouped every year simply by privatizing the sale.  I do NOT want >1000 liquor stores, selling liquor in what WILL be corrupt circumstances.

The current system is NOT BROKE, so what part of “NO” do you not understand, Governor?

It’s time for Virginians to grow up and be treated like adults.  How much of a difference does it really make if someone can buy their alcohol at a grocery store (beer and wine) rather than a state run ABC store (liquor)?  And how many grocery stores sell alcohol?  >1000?  I can drive to other states that treat adults like adults and allow the sale of liquor next to beer and wine.  I haven’t seen any news stories of the total collapse and anarchy arising in those states, but maybe I missed it.  However, I have seen the new owners of party stores who pay taxes and fees to the states for their liquor sales. and they seemed quite pleased to be starting a new business.