Liquor price increases by Malloy?
From the outset of his administration, Gov. Dannel Malloy has, oddly, made reform of the state's liquor laws a consistent priority.
I say it's odd because, really, it's a bit like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. You'd think there would be a lot more important things to focus on, as Connecticut slides into a fiscal crisis of epic proportions.
Nevertheless, the governor has slogged on, despite opposition from skeptical lawmakers and fierce lobbying by the association that represents mom-and-pop liquor stores.
The governor's goal, he has said often, is to increase competition and end protective minimum price restraints, which he says should bring down prices and increase tax revenues on liquor, since fewer people may then buy it cheaply out of state.
And yet one of the governor's reforms, which passed the General Assembly, has increased the number of stores a permittee can own from three to four, and now, effective in July, five.
The total number of stores in each town in the state already is limited to one per 2,500 residents.
New York liquor store owners are permitted only one store in the state. In New Jersey, they are limited to two. Rhode Island has no limit, and in Massachusetts the limit, now seven, is due to continue to increase — to nine in 2020.
The increase in the number of allowable stores here in Connecticut appears to already be leading to fewer operators in southeastern Connecticut, less competition and, theoretically, the potential for higher prices.
Doesn't economics 101 dictate that less competition means higher prices?
Charles R. Bowe, who was already the permittee for three package stores in the region — Grand Wine & Spirits 1 on Poquonnock Road, Groton, Grand Wine & Spirits 2 on Route 12, Groton, and Waterford Wine & Spirits on Hartford Turnpike, Waterford — has acquired and is seeking to become the permanent permittee of two discount A&P liquor stores in Mystic and Old Lyme, according to the Liquor Control Division of the state Department of Consumer Protection.
Background checks on the permit applications are underway and residents have until Nov. 16 to file objections. A petition with more than 10 residents' signatures could force a hearing before the division for either application.
There are large signs with notice of the applications in front of both stores, and so far no objections to either application have been received, according to the division.
I left a message for Bowe because I was interested in hearing more about his growing chain of liquor stores. He is, you could say, our new king of booze, from Old Lyme to Mystic.
He didn't call back.
I also wanted to ask him about pricing, and whether he agrees with the governor that the reforms the governor has proposed or signed into law will succeed in lowering prices.
I guess we will have to wait and see whether prices at the A&P stores in Mystic and Old Lyme, long known for their low pricing, will change when the transition is complete.
We also will have to wait and see whether the governor continues to pursue his beloved reform — allowing package stores not to have to mark up what they pay wholesalers for liquor — as the Titanic starts to list a little more next year.
Maybe everyone in Connecticut will be drinking more then.
This is the opinion of David Collins.
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