Item: Meet the state monopoly Idaho leaders love: retail liquor sales/Dan Popkey, Idaho Statesman

More Info: Privatizing distribution and sales could bring first year-revenues of $48 million and annual revenues over $600,000. Partial privatization — state wholesale but private retail — would bring $60 million the first year and $200,000 annually. But Otter wrote lawmakers that he supports the status quo for three reasons: The state constitution grants the power to regulate liquor; state control promotes temperance; and current liquor revenue is “stable and reliable.”

Question: I've never purchased a bottle of hooch from an Idaho liquor store. But I still think it's weird that a free enterprise state, like Idaho, refuses to privatize the liquor biz. How about you?