Friday, July 28, 2017

Great New Profit-maker for the PLCB!

Great news! As reported here on Philly.com, and in more detail here from the Justice Department's own website, four companies have been ordered to pay a total of $9 million in fines for their role in the unethical practices of three PLCB officials: P.J. "PJ" Stapleton, Joe "Da CEO" Conti, and James "Fall Guy" Short. It took over four years, but they're paying, and even when you're selling booze to a monopoly that doesn't care about its customers, that ain't chump change.

We were glad to see this, since we fully support telling the truth and stating facts, even if they don't necessarily make the PLCB look bad. That's not our main mission: our main mission is proving that the current system is outdated, not good for customers, and yes, naturally prone to corruption and abuses like this. We were also glad to see that our friend (no, he doesn't know it, but he is, just like Joe "Da CEO" Conti was) James "Fall Guy" Short still hasn't been sentenced almost two years after his conviction on fraud charges. Hmmmm...wonder why that is? Bet a lot of current and former PLCB employees are wondering too.

Dat's a right: Malocchio!
Anyway, the Philly.com comments gang — usually a heap of steaming crap; angry steaming crap — managed to come up with a great idea related to this! Check this out from a genius calling themselves Malocchio: "Maybe this can be a new revenue generator for them... entrap their vendors into giving gifts, then assess confiscatory fines against them... instant profit!"

Brilliant. In fact, too smart for the PLCB. It would all fall apart shortly after the gifts were received...and the employees spent them and asked for more. Hey guys! Remember the "entrapment" part? The trap's gotta spring! Guys? Guys?

End the corruption. Privatize now. Not after more "studies," not after more "hearings," not with all the states where privatization works to look at. 

 PRIVATIZE NOW. In fact, right now would be a GREAT time: swap the Democrats a fracking tax for full and immediate privatization. Get what we want, balance the budget, and chances are good no one would really even notice the frack tax. Let's do this, PA Legislature, the citizens are waiting.
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2 comments:

  1. AnonymousAugust 6, 2017 at 9:17 PM

    I need to chuckle. The former Director of Finance issued a memo stating that the PLCB needed to raise prices in order to survive. He was subsequently fired and the board pushed back on the need to raise prices. Fast forward.....price hikes needed to cover operating costs!

    It is amazing that you are a monopoly, set your own prices, no in-state competition, full control the market and you still cant cover costs so you need to raise prices.

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  2. Lew BrysonAugust 6, 2017 at 10:41 PM

    Can you believe this quote from Mike Negra about the price increases?

    “Given our need inside this building and throughout our agency due to rising costs of employee benefits and so forth, a lot of that is out of our hands, we felt it was something we needed to do,” said PLCB board member Mike Negra. “That’s what is behind it.” (Scranton Times-Tribune, this morning)

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