Learn. Pray. Blog.

Rev. C. Douglas Smith

While traveling out of state recently, I found myself in an urban center where alcohol sales have been privatized. It was an ugly scene: corner stores selling liquor next to seedy bars; steel grates covering smokey windows lit only by the neon signs that beckoned people inside for cheap whiskey. The traffic was regular. Not far away a Salvation Army drop-in facility did its best to provide refuge for God’s children afflicted with life’s challenges — abuse, mental illness, addiction — and beset by struggle.

You have seen the newspapers and now know that there are those in state government who want to increase the number of liquor stores from around 300 to over 1000. While I am sure they are not interested in having our cities and towns turn into the kind of place I described, too often the unintended consequences of well meaning politicians become damaging and detrimental to families. If we truly believe that encouraging family values begins with valuing families we need to ensure communities are given every chance to thrive.

A few weeks back we reached out to you and asked what you thought about the Governor’s plan to privatize ABC retail sales and increase the number of outlets. Your response was overwhelming: 80% of you said “No.”  Since then we have heard directly from a number of leaders in the faith community: from bishops, rabbis and imams. We seem to be all in agreement that the state should not be in the business of selling liquor at all. But we also seem to be in agreement that having the state control the sale of distilled spirits in a highly regulated way is far better than multiplying the number of retail locations by 100, 200, 300 percent or likely more.

Today we are making our position on the issue clear in our report, Off the Wagon: Why ABC Privatization is a Bad Idea. Virginia does not need to privatize liquor stores. We are releasing a policy paper clearly outlining how other states have failed to benefit from store expansions; connecting the dots on previous research that shows the social downside to privatizing liquor sales; and showing how ABC is a well-run, efficient, and reliable revenue generator for the state and provides funding for important programs that address substance abuse and mental health.

We don’t need to turn every Sheets and Wawa gas station, every corner store, every roadside bodega into a cocktail motor-through. Our communities don’t need it. Our state doesn’t need it. And the risks are too great.

P.S.: To tell a friend about this issue and what we’re doing about it, click here!

The news these days is flush with accounts of the proposed sale of Virginia’s post-prohibition monopoly of ABC stores. For generations, the Commonwealth has controlled liquor by the bottle through a state-based network of about 300 stores that do no advertising, rarely display signage, and still wrap bottles in a trademark brown paper bag. Governor Bob McDonnell wants to change that.

My friend Sen. John Chichester used to tell me that Virginia’s hold on ABC stores resulted in the state drinking in both tax and profit. In other words, liquor stores are another example of a well run government program, this time as an actual business. And a very profitable one at that! And those general fund dollars have been put to excellent use over the years, particularly in the area of mental health. Though the irony of liquor sales funding mental health programs is not lost.

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Although the maelstrom of coverage around “boob-gate” has been amusing to behold, Attorney-General Cuccinelli is right: it is a distraction. The attention this non-issue has received is completely ridiculous.

Why?

Because we have dramatically more important issues that need the public’s attention such as the $6 Million tax increase Gov. Bob McDonnell is hoisting upon over 100,000 low income families in Virginia. Many media outlets have spent resources scrutinizing a detail on a tiny lapel pin that most people wouldn’t have noticed even if it was a foot away from their face. But none of the main stream media outlets have corrected their reporting which claims that the budget passed by the General Assembly and Governor was free of tax-increases.

The Governor still has the opportunity to fix this unfortunate policy change. Until then however, this change is still on the books and with the economy in the early stages of recovery, our brothers and sisters of low and moderate means cannot afford a tax increase as Gov. McDonnell himself said so many times on the campaign trail. We hope he won’t raise taxes on low-income Virginians and we hope our friends in the media will correct this factual error.

Governor McDonnell made an announcement this morning that is good news for our most vulnerable brothers and sisters. The press release states that he will form an advisory committee to craft a comprehensive statewide housing policy. In conversations about development and transportation during this administration, affordable housing and ending homelessness will be included.

It is encouraging to hear his statement that

“affordable and safe housing is a fundamental component of healthy and prosperous communities.”

I couldn’t agree more. Individuals and families experiencing homelessness, people with disabilities, seniors and teachers, police officers, and nurses should and will be considered part of our prosperous and thriving communities. This issue touches the lives of all Virginia residents. With cost of living rising faster than incomes for the past several decades, affordable housing is harder and harder to find. When people have to move further away from where they work to find an affordable place to live, problems with transportation and pollution are exacerbated, too.

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Virginia is raising taxes on 114,000 low income Virginians, and Governor Bob McDonnell’s press secretary, Stacey Johnson, doesn’t want the public talking about it.  The Governor’s office is claiming that a new report by The Commonwealth Institute is:

“politics at its most ridiculous,”

and yet they acknowledge

“the accuracy of its claim.”

In other words, the Governor’s office would really prefer people not notice that the Commonwealth is choosing to raise $6Million in taxes on low income workers at the very time it ensures $10Million is available for Virginia’s manufacturers.  As we often say, budgets are moral documents that speak to the priorities and values of government.  Right now the priority seems to be the manufacturers lobby.

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In case you haven’t read the news for the past few months, Virginia’s General Assembly has had to grapple with significant revenue shortfalls in the state budget. Just for context, since fiscal year 2007 the state has cut about $7 billion out of state revenue, and this year had to reconcile another $4 billion shortfall, which they did through cuts to the kinds of core services that Virginians rely on. While I would disagree, the reason many Democrats will publicly tell you they went with an essentially all-cuts approach because Governor McDonnell had already publicly stated that he would veto any budget that included a tax increase.

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Governor Bob McDonnell has avoided being a lightning rod on race since his run up to state-wide, and now national, visibility.  He had a major endorsement from democratic-funder Sheila Johnston, a prominent African American, during his run for Governor who became an excellent validator of McDonnell on many levels since she is an entrepreneur, African American leader, and of course the founder of BET.  There were questions when McDonnell suggested closing Twin Lakes State Park as part of a budget fix.  The park has significant ties to the black community as our only state park open to African Americans during segregation, but the Governor has avoided the broader race debates that George Allen fought given that Governor’s many encumbrances with historical southerness.

Now McDonnell may have some explaining to do after reclaiming April as “Confederate History Month” yesterday, and it may become his own Macaca Moment.  There are many months commemorated in VA but rarely those dealing a war over a state’s right to protect chattel slavery.  And no other commemorative month coincides with a month when Virginia seceded from America.  [time will tell how our attempt to secede from health insurance reform will be venerated.]

McDonnell says he issued the proclamation in an effort to revive Virginia’s tourism knowing the 150 Anniversary of the Civil War is approaching.  And yet, he says:

he did not include a reference to slavery because “there were any number of aspects to that conflict between the states. Obviously, it involved slavery. It involved other issues. But I focused on the ones I thought were most significant for Virginia.“

Shockoe Bottom and Shockoe Slip were the major entryway for trading slaves who survived the middle passage.   I know that the Governor is new to the neighborhood but about a 1/4 of a mile from the Governor’s Mansion there is a memorial to the slave trade that indicates how despicable slavery was in Richmond as the former capitol of the confederacy and Virginia as a whole.  One might even describe the horrific love affair that Virginia had with slavery, significant.

I certainly hope that this does not become Macaca Moment because with all of those Civil War tourists we are trying to attract to the state it would be a shame to not have a strong Governor who can hel recognize the whole history of Virginia.  Let’s not overlook the realities that the Civil War (not a “conflict,” Governor) was actually quite uncivil for those families who fought on all sides, including my own.

Slavery was even more uncivil.

This is a teaching moment.  Governor McDonnell should learn, and then teach.

Gov. McDonnell just appointed a lawyer who represents Club Velvet, a strip club, to lead Virginia’s Alcoholic Beverage Control Board of Commissioners. The strip club recently had its license to serve alcohol revoked and it’s appeal would go before this Board of Commissioners setting up an obvious conflict of interest for James Neal Insley.

Stacey Johnson, press secretary for McDonnell, said last night that “there is no conflict” between Insley’s past work for the LeClair Ryan law firm and future duties on the board.

No conflict of interest? The article continues:

However, Insley has been sharply critical of the department he will oversee. He accused ABC agents of going too far in an undercover investigation of Velvet and its controversial owner, Samuel J.T. Moore III, whose liquor license was revoked last month, pending appeal, on nine violations of state law.

The tacky Club Velvet next to the train station is just blocks from the Governor's Mansion

What?  Insley is also the same lawyer working to defend Club Velvet, a girly-bar in Shockoe Bottom? Gov. McDonnell must not be too concerned that his new ABC Board pick is defending a topless bar that shocked Richmonders last year by hanging a photo of the President as the “Joker.”  Or that the owner, Sam Moore, has been arrested breaking many of the laws the Governor supported when he headed the Courts Committee in the House of Delegates.

Insley has a huge conflict with his interest in a topless club under investigation.

Didn’t the whole Bob Sledd affair that resulted in Sledd being an “unpaid advisor” to the Governor mean that McDonnell would kept this from happening again?  Guess a conflict of interest is harder to define than I thought.

Sam Moore, Richmond's most notorious strip club owner.

Everyone deserves to be defended in a court of law.  I don’t fault Insley for being his lawyer.  But Moore’s connection to Insley as the new ABC Board Chair while being under investigation seems untimely and distracting.  It feels more like sandpaper than velvet.

Maybe the Governor doesn’t mind that big picture of Obama in his neighborhood.  If placing Insley on the ABC Board means that big banner might hang around a little longer it might make sense to not worry about the conflict and just see what, er….., shakes out.

There’s a lot of huffing and puffing about how the individual mandate in health insurance reform is unconstitutional. Is the individual mandate a liberal assault on the constitution? Or are these lawsuits about something else?

Senator Chuck Grassley (R – Iowa), ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee and twice its Chairman supported the individual mandate and said there was “bi-partisan consensus” on the individual mandate. Now his reason for opposing reform is because he disagrees with the individual mandate?

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Greenpeace launched an ad on their “Polluter Harmony” website that sounded silly but shows dumb.

Casting Bob McDonnell as a drill-centric governor is one thing, but actually creating an ad that suggests he’s gay and likes to mix it up with other drillers is just dumb.

It’s a shame because the natural gas drilling debate is a serious one that is important to have because of our long term energy needs.  Greenpeace dumbs the conversation down and uses a not-so-subtle bias that is contrary to the beliefs of most of their supporters, I would say.

Watch for yourself and tell us what YOU think.  I think Bob McDonnell is smarter than this and as his press secretary told the media, he has better hair.

Virginia small business owner Jocelyn Tice talks about how her business gets tax credits to afford health insurance. This will let her reinvest savings from lower health care costs into expanding her business and creating jobs. She doesn’t understand why Gov. McDonnell and Attorney-General Cuccinelli want to take these away from her.

Health reform provides tax credits for up to 93,400 Virginia small businesses to help make coverage more affordable.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees will get tax credits covering up to 50% of employee premiums. And these small businesses would be exempt from any employer responsibility provisions.

Further more, small businesses offering coverage to retirees aged 55-64 would be eligible for subsidies in a new re-insurance pool that could help mitigate the financial risk for this higher cost population.

It is unfortunate that our Attorney-General Ken Cuccinelli wants to keep playing partisan games while hard working Virginians suffer in our broken health care system. We are grateful that Virginians will finally be protected from some of the worst health insurance industry abuses.

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National health reform briefly took the spotlight away from the grim budget situation our Commonwealth is in. A new study out by The Commonwealth Institute shows that the budget will likely cost Virginia 37,000 jobs and $2 billion in lost GDP.

Virginia’s lawmakers responded to this crisis with an approach that is not balanced and relies most heavily on cuts to programs such as education and health care in order to close the budget shortfall.

The approach was definitely not balanced. As people of faith we are mindful of our enduring responsibility to care for one another. As it says in the Bible:

Let each of you look not to your own interests, but to the interests of others. Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus. – Philippians 2:4-5

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