Thursday, August 05, 2010
Challenges, cheers greet McDonnell during Roanoke Co. visit
The governor was in Roanoke County, where he addressed such issues as liquor sales and conservation.
STEPHANIE KLEIN-DAVIS The Roanoke Times
A crowd of about 200 gathered at the Roanoke County Administration Center on Wednesday evening in a "town hall" meeting with Gov. Bob McDonnell (right).
Related
From today's paper
- Business concerns stall House's foreign law bill
- W&L mock convention predicts GOP ticket: Romney, McDonnell
- Follow state and local political coverage from The Roanoke Times
Watch live video from the General Assembly
Who's your legislator?
More resources
Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell got an earful on the Constitution, immigration, states' rights, as well as transportation and the privatization of liquor sales in a Wednesday night "town hall" meeting in Roanoke County.
About 200 people crowded into two rooms in the Roanoke County Administration Center for what the governor later acknowledged was a session that featured as much venting of frustrations as ideas for government reform and jobs creation -- the meeting's designated topic.
Although the group seemed to be dominated by sympathetic Republicans and some tea party members -- many of whom repeatedly applauded or cheered the governor -- the question-and-answer session featured a few pointed barbs and challenges.
The governor was quizzed about his participation in a national Council of Governors that the tea party has seized upon as an Obama administration ploy to take away state control of the National Guard.
McDonnell said he joined to "have a place at the table" to help prevent just such a thing from happening.
Chip Tarbutton of the Roanoke tea party accused the governor of "buying into the Al Gore global-warming Ponzi scheme" because of his support of a project to make Richmond more "green."
"Part of being a conservative is conservation," McDonnell said, defending those measures as reducing toxic runoffs and saving fish and oysters in the Chesapeake Bay.
He also fielded questions about how to deal with the problems of illegal immigration, the influence of lobbyists, losses in education funding, the placement of electricity-generating windmills and the constitutional question of "nullification."
While complimenting the questioner on his knowledge of the Constitution, McDonnell declined to say whether he backed that notion, a legal argument that a state may invalidate or nullify a federal law it believes violates the 10th Amendment's delegation to the states or the people all rights not designated to the federal government.
Despite the wide-ranging questioning, much of the evening was spent on the future of the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and transportation.
Surrounded by Cabinet members and other staffers, the governor spent the first quarter of the two-hour session laying out the rationale for his version of government overhaul.
Two intertwined pieces of that are the privatization of liquor sales and the provision of new revenue to help pay for transportation improvements.
Although final details of that plan have not been worked out, the governor contends the sale of liquor licenses will produce a $300 million to $500 million windfall to divert to transportation.
The state would lose no profit or taxes, he said, providing the same amount of annual revenue to the state.
Roanoke County resident Bonnie Campbell, a former ABC employee, challenged that notion, and the general idea of any loosening of the state's control over the sale of distilled spirits.
The state's ABC stores generated record profits last year of more than $111 million, Campbell said, without requiring a dime of general fund revenues to operate. And she said the state's per capita consumption of liquor is 20 percent below the national average, which should be a goal of a conservative state.
McDonnell defended the plan, saying there's no evidence private sales increase binge drinking -- something in which Virginia is already a leader -- or underage drinking.
In an interview after the meeting, Campbell said she was dissatisfied with the governor's response and noted that he didn't explain how the state ABC Board would pay for the increased manpower she believes would be necessary to police private sales in what could be about three times as many outlets as the 330 that exist now.
Beer and wine distributor Phillip Short defended the existing system of state controlled liquor stores as a model of efficiency.
As head of a national association of beer distributors, Short said he had seen how sales work in many of the 32 states that allow private sales of distilled spirits.
He said Virginia "maximizes revenues to the general fund over any system I've seen" elsewhere. Although Virginia's ratio of liquor stores to population is among the nation's lowest, "responsible adults have access to spirits at reasonable hours in reasonable and appropriate locations," Short said.
State employees have a better incentive to prevent sales to intoxicated or underage customers, he said, and state stores have lower incidents of robbery than private ones, saving Virginia localities money in crime prevention and prosecution.
After the session, McDonnell proclaimed it a success, saying even though there may not have been a host of new ideas presented, such meetings let him "get a sense of what people are thinking about."
