Liquor Regulation Fight Will Be Heated

Yesterday the Rockville-Mid-County Democratic Breakfast Club held its monthly meeting. The speakers were Delegate Bill Frick and Council President Nancy Floreen, discussing bills to change the current MoCo liquor monopoly.

Both Delegate Frick and Council President Floreen are intelligent and kind people, but both got a little hot during this discussion, more so than I have seen on other issues. We're still months away from action by the General Assembly on the proposed bills about MoCo liquor regulation, so it appears this will be a very heated political issue.

Currently MoCo may be (this is disputed) the only county in the U.S. that has a government monopoly on liquor wholesale and retail sales. Those who support continuing this say the county would lose (the number varies) about $30 million is this is ended, but that is also highly contested. 

Those who want to end the MoCo liquor monopoly say this is a subject that should not be under government control (most agree with that), but the opposition says we're stuck with the current system. Opponents of continuing the liquor monopoly also say that action would lead to more choices and lower prices for consumers, but that is also disputed.

So, this will be a very hard fight.