Tuesday, August 19, 2008

PLCB flexes its dumb muscles again

Go read this post on my friend Jack Curtin's blog, Liquid Diet Online, and catch my response in the comments field. The PLCB just cannot keep its paws off booze and booze venues in State College. They get crazy and over-active. Now, partly, that's because the Legislature leans heavily over their shoulder in State College, because of all the constituents who have kids at Penn State. But you know what? If you, The Legislature, want to have this horrible two-headed abortion of an agency doing the job of "alcohol control" for you, step back and let them do it.

I'll have something to say about the wine direct-shipping mess soon. Honestly...sometimes I think the name of the blog should be Why the PA Legislature Should be Abolished.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I just found this blog, and let me say that I'm so glad to find that I'm not alone. I work in Harrisburg, God forbid--for the state!!@ But it's true, the PLCB is an abomination. An abomination I tell you!! I lived in VA for a few years after college--beer and wine at the Giant! OMG! True, VA had ABC Stores, but buying liquor in PA couldn't be more absurdly difficult if the lcb had specifically designed it that way. Why are there so few state stores? Why is the selection so shitty? Why are the prices so high? WhyTF can't I buy a case of brew at the Sheetz?! I know...serving two masters. It's not working. I believe there is only one other state--I think Utah--that has such a fucked up system. God, deliver us from greedy legislators who are, at bottom, the ones that caused this catastrophe and who nurture and prolong it still.

My mind was boggled to hear of the reference to "temperance" in the liquor code. I had no idea. I suspect most Pennsylvanians are ignorant of this fact, as well. God forbid the fucking Patriot News should mention it once in a while! This is just insane. Keep fighting the good fight.

Rich said...

Keeping anon for a reason?

Lew...more rants please...I'm going through withdrawl.

Anonymous said...

You can not buy grain alcohol in PA?

Lew Bryson said...

That's correct: no grain alcohol sales in PA.

Anonymous said...

I know you got a lot going on, but you can't change the system with one posting a month, and the KY Bourbon Festival must have you pumped up about SOMETHING!!

Lew Bryson said...

I do, actually, Sam. I was wicked busy with work -- and with getting my daughter started at a new high school -- and decided that I could only keep one of the two blogs going and stay afloat, so STAG took precedence. My schedule's relaxed a bit now that KBF is over, and some big assignments are completed. I'll be back on here this week. Thanks for asking.

Anonymous said...

what many don't realize is the PLCB pays for half of the PA debt. Half of their proceds went to paying for roads and taxes. So unless you want to pay higher taxes I would quit listening to this dumb ass site...

Lew Bryson said...

what many don't realize is the PLCB pays for half of the PA debt. Half of their proceds went to paying for roads and taxes. So unless you want to pay higher taxes I would quit listening to this dumb ass site...

Pretty precise figures there... So the PLCB pays for taxes? How's that work? And "pays for half of the PA debt"? What's that mean? I thought it paid for roads and...taxes?

Look, where the monies from the PLCB go is irrelevant, wholly irrelevant. It's money, it's fungible, it goes where the State needs it to go. But your argument of "unless you want to pay higher taxes" doesn't wash.

Check it out: PA residents who buy booze at the State Stores fork over bucks to the State, and the PLCB crows about how much it makes. But then the PLCB pays out a bunch, too: wages, taxes (is that messed up or what?), leases, cost of materials, utilities, all that jazz. So if the PLCB goes away, all those costs go away (Bonus #1), the state still collects all the rotten excise taxes on booze because the private booze stores will have to collect them, and do it at their own cost (Bonus #2), and the "loss" of all the wicked mark-up the State was reaping on sales that should have been made by privately-owned booze stores (and now will be, and they'll be taxed on that profit)...will be replaced by taxes that will be spread more fairly and evenly across the State's entire population, instead of all being paid by folks who just want a cocktail or a bottle of wine (Bonus #3).

Now who's the dumb ass?