PLCB Privatization Gutted


The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette is reporting that the Pennsylvania plan to eliminate the PLCB has failed and has been replaced by a plan to let beer distributors sell wine.

The House Liquor Control Committee, controlled by Republicans, today scrapped Republican Turzai’s wide-ranging but controversial bill and instead passed a radically different bill that would let the state’s 1,200 beer distributors sell wine to the public while the liquor stores continue.

The “gut and replace” amendment, as it is called, was proposed by Rep. John Taylor, R-Philadelphia, who said he couldn’t support Mr. Turzai’s plan to eliminate the LCB’s 620 stores and lay off its 3,800 unionized workers.