Thursday, October 20, 2011

NO on 1183, NO to corporations buying our government...again.

NO on 1183.  I just keeping voting against privatizing  liquor in WA state. Every time Costco puts it on the ballot. I shoot it down.  Why?... Ignoring all the adds that are running on both sides. Here's the best reason of all.  The liquor  department in WA state is only one of two departments in the state that generates income. It pays for itself completely and puts around 350 million dollars a year back into the state general fund.  The several thousand employees  the department has, all make a living wage with medical  insurance  and retirement benefits.  I am not willing to put those people out of work so Costco and  7/11  can  create a few new minimum wage jobs with no benefits and put billions  of dollars in their own pockets. That's my  oh so simple reason for  voting no on this.   The system we have is not broken. It doesn't need to be fixed.  While licenses and fees  from  corporations might put a few million  dollars a year into the general fund... it wont be enough to  cover the the unemployment checks for all the people they put out of work. The economy is in enough trouble right now  without adding 3000 + more souls to the ranks of the unemployed, underemployed, uninsured,'cant pay the mortgage' , 'need food stamps to feed the kids'  line.  This is  just another  case of a corporation with big  dollars trying to buy our government.  While Costco has the money...... it is  'We the People' who will pay the price if they win.

Want to read the annual  report from the liquor department?  Here it is in all its public glory. (you wont see  Costco's annual  budget report online)  We own this so lets keep it!
http://liq.wa.gov/publications/2010-annual-report-final-web.pdf

1 comment:

  1. Awesome! You put it well. At some point we have to say "no" and remember that the taxes we pay (and all the money we spend) actually might keep people in work and off the dole. Trading state government for big corp? No thank you! - Deane

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