Virginia Delegate Files Bill To Abolish State-Run Liquor Stores

Nick Freitas — a member of the Virginia House of Delegates — filed a bill to abolish Virginia’s government-run system of liquor stores.

HB 328 — filed on Tuesday by the Republican lawmaker — would require the Board of Directors of the Virginia Alcoholic Beverage Control Authority to “dispose of all real estate used as government stores and to terminate leased property upon which the Board has operated a government store.”

“Prohibition ended nearly 90 years ago. There is absolutely NO reason to maintain a state monopoly on the sale of alcohol,” Freitas explained on Twitter. “That’s why I just introduced legislation to ABOLISH the ABC system in Virginia.”

Prohibition ended nearly 90 years ago. There is absolutely NO reason to maintain a state monopoly on the sale of alcohol.

That’s why I just introduced legislation to ABOLISH the ABC system in Virginia. pic.twitter.com/UmN71tdkuy

— Nick Freitas (@NickForVA) January 12, 2022

Freitas filed his legislation as Virginia experiences difficulties in stocking shelves due to the supply chain crisis.

ABC 8News reported:

Supply chain issues, like imports being hung up at the port, combined with delivery delays and the recent holidays is making it difficult for Virginia ABC employees to restock the shelves.

Travis Hill, Virginia ABC’s CEO, said inventory is normally lower after holidays. However, he said stores are experiencing an all-time shortage recently, with 255 items out of stock.

“What COVID did with the supply chain disruptions, it just doubled on it,” Hill said.

The Virginian-Pilot added:

Product availability has been a roller-coaster ride with supplies on the rise, then out-of-stock products spiking again at 242 after Christmas, then improving again to well under 200 last Wednesday… Since the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, the number of out-of-stock products was lowest at 55 in April 2020 and reached a peak of 250 in January 2021.

The toughest time was between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day, according to a number of local store managers. On Jan. 3, the ABC store in York County near the Williamsburg city limits received its largest shipment in a few weeks, an employee said.

Freitas also filed his legislation days before incoming Virginia Republican Governor-elect Glenn Youngkin is slated to take office. 

Youngkin recently appointed Dr. Marty Makary — surgical oncologist and chief of the Johns Hopkins Islet Transplant Center — to lead the state’s response to COVID-19. Makary has served as a contributor to Fox News as a critic regarding some of the statements by Dr. Anthony Fauci and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

However, Aimee Rogstad Guidera — who Youngkin nominated by Youngkin to serve as secretary of education — previously founded the Data Quality Campaign (DQC), an entity which has taken $26 million from the left-leaning Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and may be pushing the equity agenda that Youngkin has opposed.

Devin O’Malley, a spokesperson for Youngkin, told The Daily Wire that the governor-elect stands by his pick.

“I can assure you that as a member of Governor elect Youngkin’s cabinet, she understands that parents matter and that we have to raise standards and restore excellence in education,” O’Malley told The Daily Wire. “A major part of the policy platform that Virginians mandated was removing CRT and political agendas from our schools. Gov-elect Youngkin wouldn’t have selected Aimee if he didn’t have the full faith and confidence in her resolve to do that.”

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