Get a piece of the OLCC warehouse action
I see that the State of Oregon is out borrowing money again this week. $995 million, in fact. Here's the sales document.
I came across this as I scoured the internet looking for financial information about the state's liquor store operations, which have recently been exposed as being at least slightly corrupt. And as is revealed on page 6 of the document, $23 million of the new state borrowing will go toward erecting the OLCC's obscenely overpriced new warehouse in Canby; another $2 million of the loan will go toward the technology in that building.
This comes on top of a first round of borrowing last spring, when the state went on the hook for roughly $52.5 million for the warehouse and another $8.5 million for the IT. You math majors can see that so far we're up to about $75.5 million borrowed for the building and $10.5 million for the tech. Last year's bonds are yielding a nice tax-exempt return of up to 3.51 percent for those who fronted the money. I assume that this year, interest rates will be higher.
The overall budget for the new booze palace was recently reported as more than $145.7 million.
In flipping around in the offering documents for the two bond issues, I did come across some revenue and asset figures for the OLCC operation. If you word-search the docs for "liquor," some numbers come up. Maybe someone with time and expertise can analyze them. You would hope that someone in the Secretary of State's office or state Attorney General's office is going over them with a fine-toothed comb, now that misdeeds at the agency have been uncovered. But this being Oregon, I wouldn't bet on it. It's just a few bottles of whiskey; nothing to see here, folks, move along.
Maybe the new facility will have a drive-thru window for us Pappy customers?
ReplyDeleteCash only.
DeleteThis "investment" will be one of the arguments against the privatization that nearly everyone wants.
DeleteIf you get rid of the OLCC, get ready for a sales tax in oregon on all the hood you purchase in the state.
DeleteIt's already worse than a sales tax (on spirits).
DeleteTaking it private will lead to a retail tax and that might mean including beer and wine in it, but I'm OK with that.
If you tax all drinks based on alcohol content, then the industries will band together to fight against more booze taxes. Right now they are incentivised to push the tax increases on competitors.
"If we rid ourselves of OLCC monopoly of spirit sales, it will result in a statewide sales tax on all food"? WTF? Are you delusional? That's the dumbest claim I've heard in a while. Perhaps I"m not understanding it. Could you flesh this out with some detail and context?
DeleteAnd for what? 20 bottles of whiskey you were never going to get anyways? Come on…
ReplyDeleteIf you honestly think that's the only crooked thing going on at that agency, you are beyond naïve.
Delete