Opinion: Shut up wine sales whining by shutting in combatants

The year 2009 was supposed to be a good year for wine as it looked like significant progress had been made last year for allowing the sale of wine in grocery stores. Instead, a frost has descended on the state legislature and the possibility of buying some Shiraz at your neighborhood Publix will have to be put back in the bottle.

Right now there is little to no hope that legislation supported by most Tennesseans will make it to a full vote in the State House or Senate. Unless something drastic happens, the bill is dead for another year and legislators are very reluctant to pass new liquor laws in election years, which is next year.

So it is looking like the earliest any legislation would pass is in 2011.

You ask, “What drastic step could be taken?” The answer is simple — Lt. Governor Ron Ramsey needs to start acting like former Speaker of the House Jimmy Naifeh.

Last year, when Naifeh was still Speaker and the bane of GOP existence, he forced lobbyists and lawmakers into a room and locked the door to come up with a plan that all sides could live with that resulted in the “The Competitive Cable and Video Services Act of 2008.” Republicans and Democrats were stuck in a room with lobbyists from competing companies and hammered out legislation that ended a prolonged feud. Some left the room happier than others (no one got everything they wanted) but what was jokingly referred to as 2008’s lobbyist employment act did not spill over into 2009.

While some legislators say that they want to put “bread on the table before wine is served,” there will continue to be a roadblock for consumers wanting to buy wine at a grocery store. The fashionable thing among those not walking the halls of the legislature is to blame liquor lobbyist Tom “Golden Goose” Hensley for defeating legislation on the matter. Hensley is against the bill, but so are a number of other lobbyists working on behalf of other entities.

The fact is Hensley is no longer relevant to most legislators. They know where he stands and they know his track record, but they could care less. Frankly the “Goose” has been getting by lately on the work of the gander. When Ramsey and company took control of the Tennessee General Assembly, they promised it was a “new day” and lobbyists like Hensley would not retain the influence that the general public perceived that they had.

The opportunity for Ramsey to show the general public that he means business is at hand, by taking a page out of Naifeh’s book.

Throw all the legislators who are leading the charge for and against this bill into a room with representatives of the major companies and entities affected by the legislation and tell them not to come out until they have something they can agree on.

Face it, those opposed to changing current state laws aren’t going to cooperate until the last possible moment. Tell them this is the “last possible moment” and unless they cooperate they might as well not have any representatives on Capitol Hill for years to come.

In this situation the only person who can make it happen is Ramsey, given the fractious nature of the State House and lack of a clear leader in either caucus.

It is agreed that “bread needs to be on the table before wine is served” in this time of fiscal crisis, but remember that the wine comes with an increase in revenue of over $16 million recurring into the state’s general fund and over $11 million into local coffers.