Monday, November 28, 2016

Liquor Licenses and trump

I spent the hardest three years of my life trying to reform liquor license issuance and corruption back in the late 70's and early 80's.  The ABQ Journal's Jessica Dyer revisited the issue today on the business page in a well written piece.  Back then we were somewhat successful in getting beer and wine licenses and starting a process to do away with privately owned licenses that were worth up to $800K.  Much of that was undone by Bruce King and the legislature ten years later.  It was ironic that Bruce signed the bill because he was the Governor who let me do the reform efforts a decade before.  The liquor lobby got to him.

This whole situation is a metaphor for the incoming trump administration.  He is part of the corporate corruption that sways against the public good for personal greed.  It is a machine that never goes away. It is just like how the coal and oil boys will lobby and corrupt efforts to save the planet from climate disaster for a few extra bucks.  And trump's conflict of interests will be ignored.

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