Privatization is Not a Piñata

Looks like the Legislature's been here...

I'm looking at HB790, the proposal that Governor Corbett has put forward for privatization of the the State Store System, and it's becoming clear what the Legislature is in this for: the money. It's not about us, it's not about doing the right thing, it's not about doing what we want, it's about the money.

It's about campaign donations from the unions and businesses, it's about the tax revenue, it's about the shiny promise of a billion bucks in "windfall" money from license fees and wholesaler fees and higher fines and continuing fees... And like I always tell people in other states when their legislators want to raise booze taxes, where do you think all that money's going to come from? Duh, guys: out of your pockets. Because the wholesalers and the retailers aren't going to eat that increase (and no reason we should expect them to), it's part of the price of goods. So the higher the license fees...the higher the prices. It's just a tax under another name. Why, much as I'm pissed about Representative Taylor's planned amendment for HB790, at least he recognizes that, and lowered those fees.

The problem is that the Legislature doesn't look at the booze business like we do: producers and wholesalers and retailers all bringing the wines, spirits, and beers we love to shelves near us, hopefully sold by folks who have the same kind of passion for it that we do (or, hey, by guys who want to make picking up the basics quick and easy). They don't look at it like those in the industry do, as a fair business that makes a decent profit and pays good wages. They don't even look at it like MADD and the neo-prohibitionists do, as the devil's handmaidens, selling pure liquid evil.

No, the Legislature looks at the booze business -- brewers, distillers, vintners, importers; wholesalers, retailers; bars, delis, restaurants, taverns, stadium concessions -- as a big piñata, stuffed full of revenue, the money that makes things work in Harrisburg. Yes, the money that builds roads (and drips down to corrupt the fat cats), and pays for the State Police, and higher education, and state parks, and so on and so on, and it's also the money that gets doled out to make friends happy, and pay for patronage work, and all the semi-shady crap that's been going on in Harrisburg...it's all revenue, and that's really how the Legislature sees the booze business: a piñata, dangling in front of them, bulging with bucks, and the stick's in their hands.

Step right up, Senator! See the beer distributors, gorged with the fruits of their semi-monopoly? WHACK! The bars, making money in cash, helped along by the limited competition the licensing system creates? WHACK! The wholesalers, a layer of markup forced onto the others by three-tier laws -- WHACK! -- the brewers, newly successful craft brewers and the roaring Yuengling -- WHACK! -- Pennsylvania's wineries, ignored by the State Store but making people happy with festival fun -- WHACK! --the new distillers, better teach them how it works before they get too big -- WHACK! -- and the grocers and drugstores, wow, new blood! -- WHACK! WHACK!

 WHACK!

And then...the piñata breaks. The revenue tumbles out! Oh boy, grab it, shovel it into your committee bags, scoop it up to take home to your campaign contributors! Don't worry about the broken shell of the piñata. Don't worry; the system has limped along for decades, made to work by dedicated people who worked within the ridiculous cage of complicated laws you made, who did their best to try to bring the citizens what other states' peoples took for granted. It doesn't matter if you don't get this right: you've been ignoring what's wrong with the State Store System for over 40 years, you can ignore the mess you're going to make with privatization, too.

Don't let this happen. Call your representatives, email them, visit them if you can. Go to Facebook, tell Representative Taylor that you want real privatization, not some watered-down "modernization." Here are some talking points, bullet points, really.

• License fees are too damned high.
• There are too many different types of license, and the mistake of the "case law" is repeated in multiples with all the different arbitrary limits on how much each license can sell in one transaction.
• Beer distributors should not be charged a special fee to sell sixpacks, and there shouldn't be a minimum sale of a sixpack: do away with these ridiculous minimum and maximum sales altogether.
• Privatize fully, NOW. Give them 6 months. 

Don't break the system to get at all the money inside. Free it up, and collect the extra taxes you'll get when people no longer feel the need, the urge, to avoid the screwed-up mess we have and buy across the border.

And most of all...there is no windfall. If the State Store System really were the "valuable public asset" the unions keep trying to tell us it is, some company would be offering you money to take it over and run it. It's not. It's an annoyance. The people of the state despise it, and can't wait to see it gone. Forcing the new licensees to pay for it is just...whacking the piñata.
 

The State Stores have had 80 years to get it right. They haven't, they won't. Game over. PRIVATIZE.

Percolation and Progress

Things are popping in Harrisburg. Check out this headline on the Harrisburg Patriot-News website:

Liquor privatization picking up speed in Pennsylvania as bill is introduced 

House Bill 790 was introduced today, and will be moving through committee. According to the bill's primary sponsor, House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, the bill will move quickly. From the article above: 

“Because there is a lot of energy, a lot of enthusiasm … There is widespread agreement in our caucus,” Turzai said. He said the House Liquor Control Committee will take up the bill March 18, and he expects the House will vote on it later this month.

You may recall that last year the privatization bill was shredded in committee by Rep. John Taylor. That's not how he's talking this time around, according to quotes in this article.

“It seems like we’re going to agree on most of it, but the speed of what we’re doing is really a big part of it,” Taylor said.

Taylor wants to slow down the privatization process. Well...if that's what it takes, okay. As long as we avoid the pointless "modernization" the PLCB sycophants in the PA Senate are still gassing about. That tune may change when they find themselves with a passed privatization bill from the House with the Governor standing behind it. Impaired though Corbett may be, he's still the governor, and Senate Republicans will soon find themselves under the spotlight.

Still, one day at a time, do the work that's in front of you. That's getting a privatization bill out of Taylor's Liquor Control Committee in decent time and in decent shape, not gutted like last time. So...PLEASE send emails of support to as many of the members of the Liquor Control Committee as you can; you can find them here. Definitely thank Taylor for his support this time, and thank Representatives Kampf, Killion. Lawrence, Mustio, Reese, and Regan for co-sponsoring HB 790. And if you want, send an email to the 9 Democratic members of the committee, asking them why, if a majority of Democratic voters polled support privatization, not one Democratic legislator supports it.

Keep your fingers crossed, and your powder dry. But get on the email, and on the phones, because I guarantee you that the State Store unions are doing that, calling every week. Make yourself heard for a change!