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On May 25th, 2007 at 03:33 AM, PropertyRights said:
My apologies, I didn't mean to post this. It was meant to go elswhere in my own files. with more research to be done later. My fault, VERY embarrased....
Another site I blog on keeps posts private until shared, my mistake.
I hate when folks post as I did. My apologies to all. Mia Culpa!
IP please remove this post... I posted it by mistake! But please leave it up for 24 hours, so my apologies might be read by those who took the time to respond to it.
What a load of crap.
You might try actually looking at the state numbers instead of pulling them out of your ass.
http://www.auditor.illinois.gov/Audit-Reports/Compliance-Agency-List/Revenue/FY06-Revenue-Comp-full.pdf
Total Fiscal Year 2006 Liquor tax $152M. Your $5.5B estimate is 36x too high.
As of 2003, there were 24,000 liquor licensees under the oversight of the liquor control comission. This means that each licensee sent in $6,300 in liquor taxes on average. Divide this by 365 days/year, and each licensee generated an average of a whopping $17 of revenue per day to the state in liquor taxes.
Wow. For $17/day, these businesses receive the privilege of being (in Champaign at least) an exclusive club of 50 out of 63,000 individuals who are allowed to sell alcohol.
Hearing bar owners complain about government regulations sounds a lot like the Welfare Queens down at the County Market complaining how they can't just get cash for their Link Card. ("It's mine! What right does the government have in telling me how to use it?!?") Hmm. Welfare Queen...Queen of Memphis. Maybe the similarity is deeper than anyone would've thought.
I liquor license isn't property. It's a privilege granted by the state. You don't want it, give it back. There's a long line of people waiting to take your place. Either play by the rules, or stop taking the government handout.
A conservative is just a liberal who expects a bigger check from the government.
So, $152M in revenue.
Where does it get spent?
Alcohol and substance abuse prevention block grant - $79M
Youth alcoholism and substance abuse prevention blcok grant - $1M
Alcohol and substance abuse fund - $28M
Local Government alcohol safety programs - $5M
Illinois Liquor Control Comission admin - $17M
Thats $130M in alcohol abuse expenditures, from $152M in revenue. That doesn't include any medical cost to the state from alcohol related deaths and injuries. Or money for state and local governments to scrape the bodies off the freeway. Even giving you that as "negligible" cost, the most that you can say alcohol contributes to highways and other programs is $22M/year. Again from 24,000 licensees. That's $917 per licensee. Or $2.50 per day per licensee. How much highway can you build or repair for $2.50?
Again, like a Welfare Queen bragging that her using her link card helps the local economy. "I'm paying my way!!!".
I have moved my statements to a personal file as well as the reponses. Should I decide to repost it, I will take these comments into consideration. Thank you, and agian my apologies for not understanding how it worked before accidentally posting it publicly.
Great to see a self-righteous conservative run for cover when the facts hit the fan.
It should be pointed out that your original post was a long diatribe about how the bars bring in (in your estimation) about 5.5 billion dollars to the state general fund (not including sales taxes), and that it's your drinking that is paying for road building in this state.
Having removed it, you create a non-sequitur of the responses that follow.
At least have the intestinal fortitude to leave your original post up and admit that you had all of your "facts" wrong.
Or maybe you haven't had time to pour your courage out of the bottle yet this morning.
FYI - in the future, if you save something and make sure the "published" box is unchecked, it'll remain a private draft not available to the public.
Hearing bar owners complain about government regulations sounds a lot like the Welfare Queens down at the County Market complaining how they can't just get cash for their Link Card. ("It's mine! What right does the government have in telling me how to use it?!?") Hmm. Welfare Queen...Queen of Memphis. Maybe the similarity is deeper than anyone would've thought.
That was just an idiotic statement and a very cheap shot.
"That was just an idiotic statement and a very cheap shot"
"...and I've never taken a government handout." - WelfareQueen of Memphis May 16, 7:48am
As long as you view your welfare as a right, and not a privilege, you might convince yourself that its not a handout, and that you are somehow superior to the other people who get theirs from the government.
This is so very puzzling. Never before in my life have I been painted as a taker. But of course, we don't really know each other, so I shall refrain from being utterly offended.
Of course we all get benefit from the government in various ways. I think that's why we pay taxes.
The "damning" statement quoted above wasn't my declaration of superiority. I was simply countering this strange "welfare queen" stuff someone came up with.
I don't mind that some of the taxes I pay go toward supporting others who aren't fortunate enough to have jobs. I'm particularly fond of government programs that promote education and job placement, and I'm happy that a little bit of the money I earn goes toward helping people in these ways. And I fully recognize how fortunate I am to have always been on the paying side of the equation. But I don't think it's wrong of me to feel kind of good that I've gone through some very tough times in my history yet always managed to get by without seeking public aid.
I would say one's personal welfare is neither a right nor a privilege. It is a responsibility.
"always managed to get by without seeking public aid."
Bah.
The government grants you a semi-exclusive license to sell a product. Only 50 out of 63000 people can obtain such a license. What a privilege! This is public aid in every sense of the word. The fact that you do not recognize the gift by the government for what it is, yet continue to whine about it as if it were a right does not diminish the gift.
How big is the gift?
A) What are your gross sales per year?
B) What would those gross sales be if you did not have a liquor license?
The size of your welfare check equals A minus B.
Regulations and restrictions are "gifts" and "aid" now. Nifty.
As much as one may wish to find new and interesting ways of finding a semantic way of twisting what someone said (using the common usage of a term) to be some sort of contradictory boondoggle... I don't see the point. We all knew what she meant and outside of one person obviously on a mission, nobody else typically associates the term "handout" with limited permit situations. Get over it.
--
Glock21 Op/Ed
Yes, it is a privilege we pay for (at city, state, and federal levels) that allows us to put our personal savings on the line in an extremely high-risk business. And we are grateful to be able to do that. It's much more fun than managing a stock portfolio.
You're missing an item "C" in your equation. That would be the amount of money we have invested--and continue to invest--in order to exercise this privilege that the government has "gifted" us. Which is to say, we would have a good deal more money in hand today if we had instead invested in some nice, stable blue-chip stocks.
If that's welfare, I guess I need to find myself a new dictionary.
Just keep telling yourself, "I will not encourage the dipwads...I will not encourage the dipwads..."