Back on tap: Push to privatize Pa. liquor sales

HARRISBURG - Like Groundhog Day, the move to privatize the state liquor stores in Pennsylvania is back again. House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana) said Tuesday that lawmakers would introduce a bill - similar to one that passed in 2013 - to sell off the 600 State Stores and that the GOP-led House would pass it this month.

The bill would not immediately shut down state stores but rather phase them out, while allowing some stores to remain open in rural areas.Read more

by Amy Worden, Inquirer Harrisburg Bureau

Published Feb. 10, 2015, 4:52 p.m. ET

HARRISBURG - Like Groundhog Day, the move to privatize the state liquor stores in Pennsylvania is back again.

House Majority Leader Dave Reed (R., Indiana) said Tuesday that lawmakers would introduce a bill - similar to one that passed in 2013 - to sell off the 600 State Stores and that the GOP-led House would pass it this month.

Reed, speaking to reporters in the Capitol, said it makes sense to consider a revenue option that could bring in $1 billion in license fees at a time when the state is facing a $2.3 billion budget deficit.

"I see this as a starting point," Reed said. "It took us 80 years to pass a liquor privatization bill through the House. We have different members and a different governor."

A similar bill, sponsored by then-Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny), passed largely along party lines last session with support of Gov. Tom Corbett in the GOP-controlled House, but was opposed by unions and died in the Senate when no compromise was reached.

This session there is new Republican leadership in the Senate, but also a Democratic governor who is not on board with an outright sale of the stores.

"Gov. Wolf supports modernization of the state's liquor stores, which can produce new revenue that can be used to fund vital programs while improving options for consumers and making sales more convenient," his spokesman, Jeff Sheridan, said.

Among the changes Wolf suggests are removal of limits on Sunday sales, ensuring prices are competitive, opening small State Stores inside retail outlets such as supermarkets, and direct shipment of wine and spirits.

The bill, to be introduced by Turzai, who is now House speaker, calls for 1,200 liquor licenses statewide, available first to beer distributors, that would create one-stop shops for beer, wine, and spirits. Grocery stores would have to have seating areas and could sell only wine unless they applied for a special license to also sell beer.

The bill would not immediately shut down State Stores but rather phase them out, while allowing some stores to remain open in rural areas.

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