MA queston 3?

[cos]

Four ballot questions in Massachusetts this year, and 3 are IMO easy & obvious:

1 - "Fair Share Amendment" would amend the constitution to make the state's flat income tax a little bit progressive, by adding a higher tax bracket on income over $1 million per year. YES

2 - Medical loss ratio for dental insurance. Health insurers in MA are required to meet a ratio of 90% spent on actual health care, but there's no standard for dental insurance at all. This would require dental insurance to spend at least 83% on actaul coverage, no more than 17% profit/overhead. YES

3 - ummm... I think NO, but what a mixed bag!

4 - Keep the law the state already passed, to allow people to have drivers licenses if they pass the tests and don't have a bad driving record, without checking their immigration status. YES

So, question 3... A bunch of different changes to rules about liquor, beer, and wine licenses for stores, about half of them with very unclear and possibly conflicting effects. The one obviously good part of Q3 is that it would finally add out of state drivers licenses to the list of valid IDs for buying alcohol in Massachusetts. On the other hand, Q3 also has two pieces that might make larger supermarkets just stop selling alcohol: a) can't sell it at self checkout, and b) fines would no longer be proportional to total alcohol profits, but to total profits from everything they sell.

And then there are all the bits about what kinds of stores can get how many of what kinds of licenses, some of which seem a bit conflicting, and are still subject to limits set by cities and towns.

I think on the whole Q3 seems designed to make it harder for grocery stores to sell wine, but to disguise that with a bunch of confusing other measures, and then tempt people to vote for it with that obviously-needed bit about out of state licenses.

What're some other people's opinions on this one?

Comments

[42itous]

I saw that small locally owned liquor stores support Q3 while large chain stores oppose it, so I was going to vote yes, but my thinking is far from nuanced on this.

[cos]

Well, yeah, that part is obvious: Q3 seems to be designed by liquor stores (most of which are small) as an anticompetitive measure to hit grocery stores and supermarkets (many of which, though definitely far from all, are large and chains). Liquor stores don't do self checkout anyway, so that doesn't affect them, but it'd be a hassle for supermarkets that half self checkout to restrict it to some customers but not all. Liquor stores' fines wouldn't change at all, since all most of their profit is from alcohol, but supermarket's fines would go up by an order of magnitude at least, since the majority of their profits are from non-alcohol sales.

[42itous]

Well, fines are supposed to be deterrent, so ideally stores wouldn't be incurring them anyway (if fines are a store's budget line item, then they aren't deterrent enough).

Liquor sales shouldn't be allowed in self-checkout lanes -- who would check ID?

I guess I have a bias here: I don't drink, so I don't care if supermarkets stop selling wine.

[cos]

Heh, fair enough. I don't drink either, so it doesn't affect me that directly, but I know lots of people who find it very convenient to pick up wine along with their groceries, and people from out of state who think it's stupid how little there is of that here in MA. I guess my main bias is that i think having a drinking age is immensely idiotic, and causes a huge amount of problems including greater rates of alcoholism. But I guess my bias, like yours, probably isn't a good basis for deciding whether this question is a good one or not.

[bluepapercup]

The Massachusetts Retailers Association is against Question 3, which was enough to make me vote for it. They're a highly conservative group, and have been running misleading television ads that basically amount to "you don't want to be the one responsible for a business failing, do you?"

Also, in light of the recent purchase of Albertsons by Kroger (who will now own Shaw's and Star Market), I think supermarket monopoly is a real possibility, so I am okay with cutting into their overall bottom line for doing things they shouldn't be doing anyway like selling alcohol to minors.

I agree it's confusingly worded and somewhat of a mixed bag as ammenments go, but I'm voting Yes nonetheless.

[flexagon]

I couldn't think of a major grocery store that sells alcohol that does have self-checkout as of right now -- Trader Joe's doesn't. Isn't there already an existing requirement that someone has to check ID anyway?

MA has way too few licenses, so I voted YES on the basis of getting more licenses out into the world. Not sure I did the right thing, just sharing my reasoning.