Government Is the Leader in "Unfair" Business Practices
I am always amazed at our government, which piously goes after business after business for "unfair" business practices, but never seems to apply the same rules to itself. My latest example:
Today, I was (finally) granted a liquor license for our store and PWC rental business at Lake Havasu, AZ. Since the approval process takes so long, I am ready at this point to be happy almost no matter what terms I get the license on. Unfortunately, the state has rigid dates for licenses - they all expire June 30 of each year. Since it is June 6 (hey, happy D-Day!) I get a license that runs from Jan 1 to June 30, and so have to renew almost immediately. But here is the really good part: They will not pro rate the license cost to June 6. In other words, I have to pay the full $1000+ for the whole 6 month period, even though I am using only a few weeks. Sleazy. I wrote more about the whole liquor license process here.
PS- many will suggest that I just wait and go pay on July 1 for my license. Well, they thought of that too. There are rules on the application process such that it has to be completed in a fixed number of days. If I don't buy the license by June 18, the whole 120-day application process starts over again.
Scott:
Of course it's not unfair, the gov't enjoys a monopoly!
June 6, 2005, 6:36 pmMatt:
Not only that, Scott...the government enjoys the only monopoly with the power to imprison or kill its would-be competitors. Talk about "unfair business practice"!
June 7, 2005, 3:42 am