PLCB lies of omission

Sounds like the PLCB to me.

People — or government agencies — don't always tell the truth when their jobs are on the line. Such is the case all too frequently with the management of the PLCB. From the former CEO telling the workers to destroy wine kiosk paperwork, to a different CEO not knowing who came up with the idea to spend millions on anti-Pennsylvania "house brands." 

Now we have the lie of omission from the Board. After years of meetings with the House Appropriations Committee, the Senate Appropriations Committee, the Senate Law and Justice Committee, and others, not once, not ever did they say that "modernization" won't reach the goals that their supporters in the legislature said it would, specifically the $65 (or even $50) million that the Legislature estimated.

Until now, that is.

I'll save you the click, and give you the nut:

"[PLCB director of communications Elizabeth] Brassell says she cannot speak to the specific $65 million figure because it did not come from the PLCB. The number came from a House fiscal analysis in June. A House Appropriations Committee report last month pegged that number at a slightly more conservative $50 million in 2016/17.
“I’m not sure what/when fiscal analyses came from different folks or what may have changed. Sorry, can’t speak for data or assumptions that aren’t ours,” Brassell said. “We have yet to be able to meaningfully estimate how much additional revenue might come from flexible pricing, but it’s certainly not the estimates attributed to Act 39 as a whole.”

Did you notice that she didn't say what the PLCB thought it would be? Another omission designed to keep the "owners" — you and I — in the dark. Why would they do this? Because if they didn't agree and the figure is is much lower, as it appears it will be, then "modernization" would be shown to be the failure that it is. And why not? The recent history of the PLCB is full of schemes that were supposed to make money that never panned out: the bailment scheme, the new POS system, the SLO system, closing stores and reopening them (well, someone's cousin the real estate agent probably DID make money on those deals, right?).

More PLCB excuses.
I didn't say that. I didn't say anything!

Disingenuous? Most certainly. Illegal? Probably not, but should we expect more from the people that run OUR business? Shouldn't we hold public servants to a higher standard because what they do or didn't do affects the entire state? You know who pays the price for these lies isn't the PLCB. It's us, the public that has to put up with more lipstick on the PLCB pig.

After all that has supposedly changed in the past year...can you buy a six-pack of beer, a case of another beer, a bottle of wine, and a bottle of liquor in one place? Nope. Can you buy wine in grocery stores? Not really; the huge majority don't and won't have a license because of the inane "cafe" requirements. Can you find the selection that you see in other states, and on the shelf, not in their "online store," something you can look at buy right now? Not even close: there are private stores that stock on the shelves as many items  as the PLCB carries on their imaginary stocklists.

We deserve better and the free market provides it; the PLCB never will be able to.