Free Your Wine, and the Beer Will Follow?
This summer, PA House Majority Leader Mike Turzai submitted a bill that would end the state run monopoly of wine and liquor sales. House Bill 11, proposes to auction off 1250 retail licenses and close the 621 state run liquor stores. It is step in the right direction, but not an ideal solution.
To begin with, it does nothing to improve the state’s ridiculous regulation of beer sales. Currently, beer can be purchased in six-packs from bars or by the case or keg from beer distributors. In the last few years, select grocery stores have managed to skirt these restrictions, but most PA residents still have meager choices when it comes to beer purchases. This is particularly frustrating for craft beer enthusiasts. Most bars don’t carry a wide selection of beer for takeout and purchasing craft beer by the case is an expensive proposition. So many travel out of state to one of the many beer retailers that line the PA border where they can find a greater selection and better choices in regards to quantity.
The bill has some other flaws as well. The restrictions placed on who may obtain a license are foolish. Grocery and convenience stores which have gas pumps can not obtain a license. I assume this is based on the notion that drunk driving will be discouraged by making intoxicated people make two stops for gas and booze. This bill is still based on the belief that government control over alcohol sales will decrease drunk driving and binge drinking, but that argument isn’t supported by evidence. Despite being one of the most restrictive states in the country in terms of alcohol sales:
Pennsylvania ranks higher than the national average in rates of underage drinking, underage binge drinking, and binge drinking among all residents. PA ranks higher than most of its border states in alcohol-related traffic fatalities and total alcohol-related deaths per capita
I understand that Rep. Turzai needed to write a bill that could pass, but if he thought that leaving such restrictions in place would appease opponents, he is mistaken. The only significant constituency that will oppose this bill are the unions, because the state run stores are staffed by union workers. It doesn’t matter what the details of the bill are, so long as those unions workers are going to be out of a job, you aren’t getting their support.
The President of the union, Wendell Young argues that privatizing the liquor stores will be dangerous. Of course, you don’t hear this same concern over the danger of alcohol in the never ending radio ads for state liquor stores. Why a state run monopoly needs to advertise, I don’t know. Perhaps there is no risk if you buy your booze from highly skilled union clerks in a state store as opposed to “minimum-wage clerks at corner convenience stores”.
Even as currently written, the bill would be an improvement over the status quo. Hopefully, the problems in this proposal will be addressed either in this bill or subsequent legislation.
