In the midst of a lull in Ogden City red meat political news, we'll start out by putting the focus on a couple of strong editorials appearing in the Standard-Examiner and Salt Lake Tribune respectively, urging a "loosening" of Utah's tight, population based liquor license quotas:
According to yesterday's Trib story, Governor Herbert's in basic agreement with the S-E and Trib editorial boards, although we'll observe that he's not exactly "champing at the bit" to solve the problem:
The Utah
- Competing issues tangle Utah’s liquor permit bottleneck
- Legislators look to untangle Utah liquor license shortage
Utah politicians regularly and proudly Utah as the "best managed state in the nation":
We'll be watching this issue closely in the days to come, to find out whether that happy little meme actually proves true in this instance.
So what about it O Gentle Ones? Should our Utah governor and legislature address this problem immediately by calling a special legislative session? Or should government officials leave distraught liquor license applicants hanging until the next Utah legislative session convenes in January of 2013? Should our right-wing, "pro business" legislature abandon Utah's population-tied quota concept altogether?
Update 5/25/12 10:07 a.m.: Grondahl nails it!
4 comments:
They are finally taking the right approach on this problem. Not complaining about LDS church interference in the liquor business. Not appealing to a sense of allowing other people to enjoy deinks with meals. No sir, they are appealing to that which the GOP dominated legislature understands. Profit, jobs, tax revenue. Any appeal to leaving the LDS church out of the equation is bound to fail. Any appeal to common sense is going to fail. But the profit motive, that they understand. As a added bonus this will mean new lobbying groups and trade assoations to give legislators campaign funds and more choices for their free meals paid for by lobbying groups.
They are finally taking the right approach on this problem. Not complaining about LDS church interference in the liquor business. Not appealing to a sense of allowing other people to enjoy deinks with meals. No sir, they are appealing to that which the GOP dominated legislature understands. Profit, jobs, tax revenue. Any appeal to leaving the LDS church out of the equation is bound to fail. Any appeal to common sense is going to fail. But the profit motive, that they understand. As a added bonus this will mean new lobbying groups and trade assoations to give legislators campaign funds and more choices for their free meals paid for by lobbying groups.
A shout-out: Very impressed at the S-E's editorial on this topic.
I wondered if the real reason Herbert is now concerned about liquor licenses has more to do with money and political favors. According to someone, via a comment on the the SL Trib article, a chain restaurant is using the guv's cousin in Koosharem to build these restaurants. Is this comment true? I don't know. But it would be interesting to find out. I just can't see the gov being concerned about liquor licenses all of a sudden when this is a been a big problem for a very long time. There's got to be some scandal here or politics as usual.
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