Leaders in the alcoholic beverage industry are asking Governor Abigail Spanberger for a budget amendment – days before the July 1st deadline.
Agents who regulate the alcohol industry might be reassigned to the new Cannabis Control Authority, creating problems for the alcoholic beverage industry. Industry licensing fees pay the salaries of those agents, so Phil Boykin with the Virginia Beer Wholesalers Association says reassigning them creates uncertainty.
"When you're talking about taking away agents, that is going to have an impact. It's going to have to have an impact on the public safety," Boykin says. "Bottom line is, we don't think ABC agents are rent-a-cops to be picked up and taken away to use to set up something else without at least having a conversation with the industry that paid for them."
In many ways, Governor Abigail Spanberger and the General Assembly are facing a challenge similar to the one state leaders faced back in the 1930s when alcohol was legalized. Kelly Roberson at the Center for Alcohol Policy says back then, special agents deputized to police the system were underfunded.
"So, when you are underfunding something and your staff is not able to execute on their charge, that's not a recipe for success, that's a recipe for organized crime to continue to flourish," Roberson says. "So, even looking at the agents, they were not well paid and that was part of the issue dealing with crime is that they were pretty susceptible to bribes."
In a written statement, a spokesman for the governor says that as a former federal law enforcement officer, Spanberger recognizes the need to make sure state agencies have the resources to ensure strong enforcement of controlled substances.
