Town-hall to expand OLCC power needs your voice

Instagram video on Senate Bill 702
By Taxpayers Association of Oregon
OregonWatchdog.com

Oregon State Senator Mark Meek just launched an online town hall video on Instagram asking for people’s feedback .

When we looked at the video comments we noticed it was mostly politicians commenting on the politicians’ own bill.

The bill under debate is Senate Bill 702 (and its amendments) which would move flavored vaping and flavored tobacco products to be sold only in liquor stores which are regulated by the Oregon Liquor Control Commission (OLCC).

That means hundreds of small mom-and-pop shops will be forced to go bankrupt and close as their inventory would only be sold at a liquor store.

• Abuse of government power: Forces private businesses to shut down and move their product to other private businesses to make a profit.
• Liquor benefit raises serious ethical questions.  Are they lobbying to use government power to carve out this product exclusivity?
• Handing more power to a non-stop scandal agency: OLCC has been involved in several scandals involving (1) their rare liquor inventory cheated customers (2) failure to control illegal marijuana sales (3) financial mismanagement of their new building by tens of millions of dollars and (4) transparency scandal and (5) improper executive conduct at a recent liquor control conference.
• Where does it stop?   Should we move all marijuana sales, firework sales and prescription drug sales under OLCC liquor stores?

As we said, it has been mostly lawmakers commenting on their own bill at this town-hall.

Senator Mark Meek kindly asked people to provide feedback.

Please do by going to Instagram here and share your thoughts.

Remember, Senator Mark Meek is asking for public input.  Please do so.

Share your though on whether we should expand liquor stores to control most vaping and tobacco products.