{"id":5592,"date":"2015-08-20T07:00:16","date_gmt":"2015-08-20T11:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=5592"},"modified":"2015-08-18T23:30:18","modified_gmt":"2015-08-19T03:30:18","slug":"adam-replies-to-gino-on-liquor-control-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/?p=5592","title":{"rendered":"Adam Replies to Gino on Liquor Control, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"

Guest Blogger Adam Pagnucco replies to MCGEO’s Gino Renne<\/em><\/p>\n

My reply to MCGEO President Gino Renne\u2019s response<\/a> to my post<\/a> on the county\u2019s Department of Liquor Control (DLC) continues.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The union claims that state monopolies on alcohol sales enhance public safety.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    MCGEO: \u201cDr. Roland Zullo, a research scientist at the University of Michigan, examined the impact of state ownership of retail alcohol distribution on 23 different crimes grouped in six categories. Dr. Zullo finds that state control of retail alcohol distribution is associated with statistically significant reductions in crimes that have been linked to alcohol consumption, including domestic abuse, assault, and fraud. Control states also had lower rates for vehicle theft and vandalism (using a slightly lower threshold for statistical significance, the 10% rather than the 5% level).\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    Guess what? This \u201cresearch\u201d was financed in part by DLC. That\u2019s right, the study MCGEO is citing is an unpublished, non-peer-reviewed working paper<\/a> paid for by the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association (NABCA<\/a>), a trade group of government alcohol merchants. George Griffin, DLC\u2019s Executive Director, is a former President of NABCA<\/a> and a current member of its board<\/a>. The organization\u2019s budget is partially financed by dues payments from its members, one of whom is DLC. NABCA is fighting efforts to end government alcohol monopolies and was greatly dismayed when Washington state voters got rid of their state monopoly in 2011<\/a>. So NABCA paid for the working paper cited by MCGEO and it was completed a year and a half later.<\/p>\n

    For what it\u2019s worth, the study found no statistically significant relationship between state control of alcohol sales and crime for 20 of the 23 measures it examined. Maybe NABCA needs to pay for a better study!<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. The union opposes blogging(!)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Maybe this is beside the point, but it is too hilarious for me to resist.<\/p>\n

      MCGEO: \u201cThis [County Council DLC] resolution came after months of hearings, testimony and input from stakeholders. If you don\u2019t like the way the process was playing out, Mr. Pagnucco, why didn\u2019t you participate in it? Why are you using your friend\u2019s blog to post your opinion without allowing for public input or participating in the public forum?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

      So MCGEO regards blogging as an illegitimate way to participate in public discussions. Who knew? I have a long<\/a> history<\/a> of writing<\/a> in favor<\/a> of MCGEO\u2019s<\/a> positions<\/a> and they have never before uttered a peep of protest. To the contrary; they republished two of<\/a> my blogs<\/a> on their website and used another on a handout<\/a>. Their former Executive Director once asked me to write a piece supporting legislation the union wanted that would have allowed library workers to unionize, and since I favored the bill, I did<\/a>. But in the one instance when I have publicly disagreed with them, I am told to cease my annoying prattling!<\/p>\n

      Do you think that MCGEO will resume its recognition of the value of blogging once I start agreeing with them again?<\/p>\n

      I will finish up tomorrow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Guest Blogger Adam Pagnucco replies to MCGEO’s Gino Renne My reply to MCGEO President Gino Renne\u2019s response to my post on the county\u2019s Department of Liquor Control (DLC) continues. The union claims that state monopolies on alcohol sales enhance public safety. MCGEO: \u201cDr. Roland Zullo, a research scientist at the University of Michigan, examined the … Continue reading Adam Replies to Gino on Liquor Control, Part II<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,22,63],"tags":[1545,1439,518,1469],"class_list":["post-5592","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alcohol","category-mcgeo","category-montgomery-county","tag-adam-pagnucco","tag-department-of-liquor-control","tag-gino-renne","tag-mcgeo"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4mKJE-1sc","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5592"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5601,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5592\/revisions\/5601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5592"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5592"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.theseventhstate.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5592"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}