The PLCB benefits the PLCB

The PLCB makes decisions that work for the PLCB, no matter how many crocodile tears they shed over the prospect of privatization 'limiting the choices in rural counties.' Just ask the people in Lewisburg. They know all too much about how PLCB decisions get made.

News leaked on March 10th that the State Store located in downtown Lewisburg might be moving. The PLCB had not made any announcement nor had they talked to the residents or businesses before making the decision.

We don't care what you want, you'll take what we give you!

Seeing the precarious health of downtown threatened by the loss of the retail store, the community organized. Due to the outcry and involvement of local legislators and a letter writing campaign the PLCB backed off, and said that there was still a chance the store would remain downtown. Guess what? They lied. Even after meeting with State Senator Gene Yaw and local Representative Fred Keller (Hmmmm...both supporters of the privatization bill) in May and again stating that no decision had been made, they were actively looking for a new location. Apparently the $12.75 million in mostly state money used for downtown revitalization since 2012 meant nothing to the PLCB.

Even the option of keeping a smaller store downtown was rejected, though the PLCB keeps lots of small stores open, even stores in close proximity to each other. Newtown Square is a prime example, with two stores within 400 feet of each other. Talk about a liquor store on every corner!

This is not the first time the heavy hand of the PLCB has come down against the wishes of the citizens, citizens who are supposedly the owners of this "valuable asset," as Wendell W. Young IV always puts it. This is a case of the workers telling the owners what to do, then.

This is the same thing as happened in Lock Haven. As I wrote in the Lock Haven post: for 80 years the PLCB has only been concerned with itself, deciding what we should be allowed to buy, where to put stores, how many stores to have (there were over 750 at one point, there are 605 now), and when they should be open. They are like some overbearing, deaf deity, ineptly bestowing its grace upon the masses.

The masses are getting sick and tired of it. Sick of a system that should have been done away with decades ago, sick of being told what they will be allowed to purchase by largely unknowing and incompetent overseers, sick of not having the convenience they see in other states, sick of the case law, sick of arbitrary "interpretations," sick of graft and corruption, and sick of being treated like children.

So the next time you hear that the PLCB benefits all Pennsylvanians, just don't ask the people of Lewisburg or Lock Haven. And the next time you hear Wendell W. Young IV tell us that we OWN this valuable asset...ask him if he knows where we can SELL IT.