Say NO to privatizing state Liquor Stores
by Bill Saylor 

There has been a recent rash of erroneous letters advocating privatization of the State liquor stores. They have been filled with fallacies.

Please allow me to correct a few of the false statements.

• I can’t remember seeing any liquor advertising from the State stores or the LCB. There is some advertising from the liquor manufacturers

• Pennsylvania has 44% fewer alcohol related deaths that the national average and 40% fewer youth related alcohol fatalities than our neighboring states (all of which have been privatized.)

• In West Virginia the huge drug stores lobbied for privatization and became major liquor marketers. Have you noticed the size of new CVS stores? They are lobbying for liquor sales as they did in West Virginia.

• There was a false claim that State stores are prime targets for robberies. I can’t remember a State store ever being robbed, but in other states, liquor stores are prime targets for robberies.

• On letter which appeared in the Lancaster Intellclaimed the LCB lost $8 million dollars last year. On the contrary, the State store system produced $55 Million in profits, $48 Million in the 6% sales tax, and $4.8 Million in emergency tax. There is a $13 Million contribution to the state police, $4.8 Million to local municipalities, $.09 Million to the Department of Health for Drug and Alcohol education, and $11.6 Million to other state agencies. That’s a total of $253.4 Million a year. Since 1980 it amounted to more than 4 Billion dollars.

The new bill provides that any store with more than 15,000 square feet, such as Wal-Mart, may get a liquor license and qualify for an adjacent beer distributorship. This would wipe out the existing 1300, largely family owned, distributors who employ 25,000 to 30,000 workers.

In Philadelphia there are 89 State stores. Houston, a similar size city, has 5,000 liquor stores. Do you really want a liquor store on every corner and back alley?

In New York, a newspaper conducted a survey that sent kids out to try to buy alcohol. It resulted in a 90% sale to 12 and 14 year old kids.

Remember, the middle word of Liquor Control Board is “CONTROL.”

In a time of screaming conservatism, why would you want to liberalize availability of alcohol to minors? State store workers don’t sell to kids.

Comment on this Commentary - Comments should be directed to Ken Ralph, Editor of LCDC Media at his email address. Comments will be posted here.

Bill Saylor

The opinions expressed here are those of the author alone and are not the official position of the
Lancaster County Democratic Committee.