Liquor Store Union Blasts PLCB Plan

The Independent State Store Union says it’s opposed to the “Alternative to Privatization” that Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board Chairman P.J. Stapleton has proposed to the House Appropriations Committee.

ISSU Policy Director Ed Kloonan says his union of state store managers opposes Stapleton’s proposals for a variety of reasons.

First, Kloonan says the Alternative to Privatization could promote alcoholism by offering free bottles of liquor to those who spend a certain amount.

Second, Kloonan says the plan also suggests that the state could accept an infusion of cash from an investor in return for the sale of future state store profits.

“You could monetize, give the profits to the [investor] for the next twenty years for a one-time hit, much like Mayor Ravenstahl wanted to do with the parking lots in Pittsburgh, privatization-like, where the bankers then own the profits of the state stores for the next 20 or 25 years,” says Kloonan.

Kloonan says the infusion of cash would be used to cover the budget deficit in Stapleton's plan.

He says the Alternative to Privatization is really a form of self-privatization from the Liquor Control Board.