Why the PLCB should follow the law, not "interpret" it

If the PLCB were a private citizen, it would most likely be in jail. It does things that the people — through their representatives in the legislature — never approved. It willingly and repeatedly violates the law, and consistently goes against one of the very foundations of English and American law: "Everything which is not forbidden is allowed." Also stated as "no crime without law," this is an essential freedom of the ordinary citizen. The PLCB, on the other hand, seems to work on the opposite idea, that "all that is not expressly permitted is forbidden." Sorta like North Korea.

Are they making broad interpretations of the laws for the benefit of the citizens? Good intentions are not an excuse for breaking the law. Never have been. The laws are for everybody, they don't say "except for when the PLCB wants to save us from ourselves" anywhere.  Let's take a look at some of the legal and common sense violations they are a party to.

Just this past week Giovanni's Pizza & Pasta, in Dormont, PA was trying to comply with all the written legal requirements so that they could deliver wine. But the PLCB isn't interested in just the legal requirements; their requirements have to be met as well. What are those requirements? They won't say. "That's a matter that is under review for consideration by our attorneys and our board. There's nothing in Act 39 that says it's illegal, but Act 39 did impose certain conditions that need to be met. We don't have a determination on that matter yet." - Elizabeth Brassell, director of communications for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (emphasis added).

I'm sure we all remember the magic 12 pack case where they "interpreted" that a "case or original container" could mean a 12-pack, even though a case had been a case (and an "original container" had been ONE original container, not a pack of  12 of them) for as long as anyone could remember. How many times in the past 80 years had they refused to consider that?  More than we will ever know.

Why was the new interpretation suddenly different? No one knows. Of course there are the infamous Wine Kiosks that were never checked to see if they complied with federal law, The PLCB just didn't bother and really didn't seem to care in that case. Even after they were called out on it they still didn't check.

While moot now, state law did say that only 25% of State Stores could be open on Sunday. Since they don't care what the law says, the PLCB was about 18 stores over the limit when Act 39 took place, allowing more stores to open. They obviously didn't care about a legal limit that was written to apply specifically to them!

How about the ever-changing beer at gas stations gymnastics? "You can't sell beer at the same location where you sell gas, period, that's the law! Well, unless the property is actually next door. Oh, and they can't have an interior connection...unless we say it's OK, in which case, that's fine, for that one licensee, not for anyone else."

That's contrary to what the Liquor Code explicitly says: "No license shall be transferred to any place or property upon which is located as a business the sale of liquid fuels and oil." But according to the PLCB, if you have a business that sells gas and you build another store next to it, and then attach them together (and they are owned by the same company), it isn't a continuation of the original gas selling business. If not, then why do they have an interior connection? Common sense was never a PLCB strong point.

One of my favorites in the "Do as I say not as I do" category is that a licensee of one class can't provide anything of value to another class of licensee. So as a distributor you couldn't help a restaurant with how to display their beer selection for example. However, the PLCB has outside representatives that come in all the time to set up advertising displays in their stores, and hires outside companies to do the sets* in the stores too. But then there are no requirements for State Stores either. We shouldn't expect them to know how to stock shelves and sell things - should we?

Maybe if the PLCB just regulated and didn't run a half-assed retail booze monopoly, they would be able to do at least one thing well. I doubt it, but I'd like to find out.

Privatize.


* A 'set' is where every bottle goes and in what order they should be on the shelves. These are the people that decided to not have the 1.5L sizes next to the standard 750ML sizes of the same wine but to group all the 1.5L bottles together.  The same ones that destroyed the standard "top shelf" setup that liquor had been using for almost 100 years.  Of course, no place except PA state stores do this.

Vox Populi

Newspapers are the voice of the people, even now, in the age of the Internet. There are left-leaning ones, right-leaning ones, moderate ones, and some that seem to just wander about the center. But in Pennsylvania, right or left, they all seem to be in favor of liquor privatization.

The State Store clerks and their union bosses will tell you that it is because of the advertising dollars that newspapers will get from liquor ads; it's all about the money. But if you look at the Sunday New York Times, in the largest media market in the country, how much liquor advertising do you actually see? Usually under a quarter of a page. How much do they think The Somerset Daily American is going to get in advertising column inches? Makes for good sound bites, though, and helps you forget that for the clerks and the union bosses...it's all about the money.

I wonder how the "liberal media" is somehow controlled by the right on just this one subject, don't you? They know and have known that the people overall want a private liquor system. There has never been a scientific poll showing otherwise, including all the polls the newspapers have done themselves. The first complaints published about the PLCB were shortly after it started, saying there was a lack of selection and convenience. 82 years later, nothing has changed.

So here's the challenge. What newspaper is actually in favor of keeping the state stores? Are there any, besides the Raging Chicken Press?  (I'm not making that up and it isn't a print newspaper either.) Perhaps a few union and progressive blogs, but even some of them are in favor.

Here are just some of the newspapers that have come out editorially, some numerous times, for privatization. Where is the list of newspapers against?

Bucks County Courier Times-Intelligencer
Butler Eagle
Express Times (Bethlehem)
Lebanon Daily News
Philadelphia Inquirer
Pittsburgh Post Gazette
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
Scranton Times Tribune
Somerset Daily American
The Altoona Mirror
The Citizens Voice (Wilkes-Barre)
The Courier Express  (DuBois)
The Delaware Daily Times
The Observer Reporter (Washington/Greene Counties)
The Patriot News (Harrisburg)
The Pocono Record
The Pottstown Mercury
The Reading Eagle
The Times Leader (Wilkes-Barre)
The Tribune-Democrat (Johnstown)
Williamsport Sun-Gazette
York Daily Record

All parts of the state, all sizes of towns and cities, all in favor of what the people want. 3,000 clerks should not control the wants of a state of 12.7 million.

Privatize. Make this the year it happens.

We need more state-paid cashiers

Here's a radical suggestion: we need more state-paid cashiers...to sell gasoline.

Why? Just think about it.

• Gasoline is dangerous, the root cause of  5,687,000 accidents. We need to have unionized state store clerks sell us this product.
• Gasoline is flammable. The public shouldn't be trusted to handle such an item. Only state clerks with non-industry recognized training should be allowed to dispense it.
• Admittedly, the sale of gasoline has no age limit, but only state clerks are able to determine if they should sell it to you.
• Gasoline prices are higher in Pennsylvania than surrounding states and state clerks are well-versed in explaining that kind of difference.
• Gasoline fits within the knowledge base of state retail clerks: there are only three types, plus diesel, to know about.

The service, knowledge, selection, and pricing
we've come to expect from state-run stores!

Once the Fine Fuels and Good Gas Stores are established, Pennsylvania consumers will experience a new type of automotive service, like no other place on earth!

• All Fine Fuels and Good Gas  Stores will look the same and carry the same products: gasoline, and diesel fuel, along with a small number of car magazines and small accessories, like those pine tree air fresheners. If you need oil or transmission fluid, you will be able to buy them somewhere else. You may be allowed to buy a lottery ticket there...someday.
• Specialty gasoline, like aviation gas or racing fuel, will only be sold where the state deems it necessary, which is not necessarily where it might be needed most.
• Premium gasoline will be available in a limited number of Premium Selection Fine Fuels and Good Gas locations.
• The Fine Fuels And Good Gas website will tell you where to go to get gas (but not how to get there or how far away it it is).
• There will be approximately 600 Fine Fuel and Good Gas Stores, a huge savings over the current number of gas stations in Pennsylvania (approximately 630,000). Overall operating costs will remain about the same (due to the higher staffing numbers and higher pay and benefits than in any other gas station in the world), but supply and real estate costs will be much lower (and paid for by the Oil City Flood Tax). 
• Unlike so-called "convenience stores" in other states, you will not be allowed to buy any soda, water, chips or any other snack at Fine Fuels and Good Gas Stores, as the temptation to drive away eating and sipping will be too much, and too dangerous. You'll have to drive somewhere else to get those. Remember - The state knows best what is good for you.
• Fine Fuels and Good Gas Stores will not be open before 9 a.m. or after 9 p.m. in most locations, nor on any holiday (except for the first day of deer season and Groundhog Day). Only one-quarter of the Fine Fuels and Good Gas Stores will be open on Sunday (no easily-consulted list will be available).
• Some Fine Fuels and Good Gas Stores in rural areas will only be open three days a week, and some counties will only have one store, so all Pennsylvanians are urged to plan ahead for your purchases (and keep emergency supplies in your trunk).
• You will not be allowed to buy gasoline in another state and bring it into Pennsylvania (non-refundable fuel-dumping sites will be built at all border crossings; once their tanks have been emptied, motorists may then pump the fuel back into their cars at Pennsylvania-approved prices).
• Self-service fuel pumps are strictly forbidden. There is a limited pilot program of fuel kiosks, a promising technology where you insert your license and credit cards into a card reader, prove you are sober by blowing into a breathalyzer, pirouetting in front of a built-in video camera and then confirm that you will not use the fuel in an illegal manner. All fuel kiosk customers will be monitored for compliance for 90 days.
• When fuel prices are lowered by the refineries, a full 10% of the savings will be passed on to consumers as lower pump prices within 120 days (at the discretion of the Pennsylvania Fuel Control Board)
• To keep operating costs down, the Pennsylvania Fuel Control Board promises to keep employee benefit costs at no more than 104% of salaries (the same as the State Liquor Stores), although how long that may be is not guaranteed.

The Pennsylvania Fuel Control Board will run this huge state enterprise; three men (yes, men) who have no experience with retail sales, fuel, gasoline, diesel, automobiles, tires, garages, or roads, which insures their total impartiality. The state will spend millions of dollars every few years trying to hide the fact they own and run all the Fine Fuels and Good Gas Stores. Fine Fuels and Good Gas Service workers will point out that there is reverse border bleed (out-of-state residents buying gas in Pennsylvania, mostly at a dozen or so border stations where the prices will be kept artificially low), proving that our system is better.

The Fuel Control Board has promised not to try and get the best prices for the citizens in trade for taking care of them for the next 80 years because the state knows best what is good for you.

Does this make any more sense than a state monopoly on wine and spirits sales? Do we really need this? Is the state better off because of the State Store Monopoly? Are YOU better off?

Privatize and move to NORMAL!