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Not in the public interest
Reasons why the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board should be abolished, and The Almighty Liquor Code completely overhauled and rewritten, to reflect over 80 years of change since Repeal.
Needed: passion for privatization
"...there was [in 1997] no overarching passion within the General Assembly, or in the public at large, for privatization. Unless and until there is a general hue and cry, it is very unlikely there will be a privatization initiative that succeeds." -- John E. Jones III, former PLCB chairman
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Not in the public interest
The Reasons
- #1: We're Adults
- #2: The Two-Headed Monster
- #3: Where's the Beer?
- #4: The 18% Emergency Tax
- #5: The Liquor Code Serves the PLCB, not us
- #6: The Pennsylvania Legislature
- #7: One Problem, Everyone's Problem
- #8: Too Much Information, Too Little Privacy
- #9: Can I get a Ruling?
- #10: Only 623 Stores for the Whole State
- #11: Harrisburg is a Black Hole (for paperwork)
- #12: Like They Care -- no consumer fairness focus
- #13: Who Needs 'Em? -- anyone can collect taxes
- #14: Control Isn't Working Worth a Damn
- #15: The Case Law is Stupid
- #16: Why Control Wine & Spirits?
Contributors
Love Letters to Harrisburg
Other Sites of Interest
- Choose Responsibility -- reasons against the 21 LDA
- Divesting the PLCB: Reason.org explains how and why
- PLCB Customer Satisfaction Form
- PLCB issues -- 4-part series in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
- PLCB list of beer brands currently registered in the state
- PLCB posts at the tleaves blog
- PLCB Product Search Page -- find PA booze here (I'm just trying to help the customer!)
- PLCB Users Group -- a non-official blog that does what the PLCB fails to do: tell you what's being discontinued, added/relisted, and put on clearance. What a concept!
- Repeal the Johnstown Flood Tax -- what more needs to be said?
- Seen Through a Glass -- Lew's full-service blog
- The Almighty Liquor Code -- Title 40 of PA law (searchable)
- The PLCB's website
- The Session Beer Project -- Lew's blog about 'session beers,' good beers at 4.5% ABV and under
If you've got your own reasons...
Send them to me. I'd love to hear from you, and take those ideas and blend them with mine. And if you're in favor of the continuing existence of the PLCB, well, send me that, too. If it makes sense, I'll publish; if it doesn't, I'll publish it also, but I may have to disagree with you.
3 comments:
Great Read, very interesting the way this system came into existence. Although the Control is slowly being lost to Big Retail interests and their big check writing abilities, it just comes down to "Money".. little care is given to the Safety of the Citizenry, let us just coddle the the Out of State people who cry.. " Where's the 6 packs. Where's my two daily bottles of Wine.. Cry babies go to the State Store and Beer Distributor.
News flash for you, Glenn: there never was much "control." When beer is sold by private retailers by the case and keg, when wine, beer, and spirits (and cider, for that matter) are sold by the drink by private retailers, the state's liquor laws don't "control" access to alcohol, they're really just an annoyance. It DOES come down to "Money," the money controlled by the PLCB, the patronage controlled by the Legislature and the Governor, the money flowing into union coffers. There are no "Big Retail interests" involved here; no one's spending much on lobbying this cause except the unions and the beer distributors (a collection of relatively small, family-owned businesses). "The Safety of the Citizenry"? DUI, underage drinking, alcohol deaths: any current number you choose, Pennsylvania is squarely in the middle of the national average, so what exactly is "Control" accomplishing? And I'm no "Out of State people." I was born in Pennsylvania, lived here over 50 years, family has lived in PA since the 1700s. And all I want is what almost everyone else in the world takes for granted: respect, and free access to what is a legal product, without the government telling me what particular brands I'm allowed to buy, and how much of them, and where. "Cry babies" indeed, what infantile language you use.
It is about money. Money that the PLCB prevents from entering the state through new business, more employment, entrepreneurial sprit and chasing a significant portion of the population out of state for better selection, service and pricing. We are not safer, cube rats in Harrisburg selecting what an entire state is allowed to buy doesn't serve us better and the highest border bleed in the entire country proves that we are not satisfied. We...as in the population, the little guy, the citizens, the ones that the state is supposed to make life better for - not aggravate them for 83 years.
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