EDITORIAL – Liberating liquor

Rob Wonderling, the Republican state senator from Montgomery County, took a shot at progress… Rob Wonderling, the Republican state senator from Montgomery County, took a shot at progress this week when he recently proposed a bill that would privatize retail liquor sales in Pennsylvania. Wonderling’s bill will in effect mange to do what conservatives have been stumping on for years: cut down on government regulation in favor of private business. So why has our legislature struggled with the notion of reforming liquor legislation for the last half century?

In any other state, the thought of a state-owned, state-sold and state-taxed liquor market sounds like something out of the post-Prohibition era. But in Pennsylvania, it’s been a reality for years. Other states’ liquor codes vary – some permit the sale of alcohol in grocery stores, others in separate but private distributors – but Pennsylvania has one of the strictest liquor codes in the nation.

Under Wonderling’s bill, the state would auction off 30-year franchises for about two-thirds of the state stores, while the remaining stores would be offered to a private equity firm. The equity firm would have a 51 percent share, with the state retaining the remaining 49 percent, according to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.

While the bill would allow for the private retail of liquor, liquor retailers would still have to purchase their products wholesale from the state – a provision that ensures that the state keeps some control over (and profits from) liquor sales. Last year alone, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board contributed $482 million to the state treasury.

$482 million is a lot of money, and we suspect that legislators won’t approve this bill unless they are certain the state would continue to bring in these types of profits from the wholesale selling of liquor. Coupled with the competition that comes along with privatization, the sticker price on liquor might not end up being much different than it is now.

State legislators have claimed for years that controlling the liquor retail market cuts down on sales to underagers and alcohol-related fatalities, but with the proper training and strict law enforcement, Wonderling’s bill requires that no stores selling alcohol could be located within 500 feet of a church, school, hospital, charitable institution or playground. We doubt that transitioning the sale of alcohol to private owners will spark an increase in underage drinkers and alcohol-related fatalities.

Wonderling’s bill is certainly not the answer to consumers’ long-standing frustrations with Pennsylvania’s arcane liquor code, but passing this legislation would be progressive by taking some control of the sale of liquor away from the state.

It might even take a compromise bill like Wonderling’s to prove to our state lawmakers that it could be possible to completely hand over the wholesale purchase, distribution and sale of alcohol to private retailers. State revenues and special interest might take a hit, but whose benefit are they governing for, anyway?