Who to blame when you can’t get a cocktail to go in Pennsylvania
Wouldn’t it be great if you could swing by your neighborhood pub and grab a margarita to take home and sip on your deck in this fine summer weather?
You can do that if you live in Ohio. You can do that if you live in West Virginia. You can do that if you live in Maryland.
You can’t do that in Pennsylvania. Our dysfunctional state Legislature refused to help the struggling bar and restaurant industry by allowing takeout sales of cocktails. Bars and restaurants are just bargaining chips in the disgusting politics of Pennsylvania, and stubborn state senators are holding their chips for a better opportunity to cash them in.
Legislators fled Harrisburg for the summer after passing a budget last Friday. The unfinished business they left behind included finalizing legislation to allow the sale of mixed drinks to go.
There is bipartisan consensus that the sales, which were allowed temporarily during the COVID-19 pandemic, should be allowed permanently.
The Republican-controlled House passed legislation approving it. Democratic Gov. Tom Wolf said he would sign it. Then the Republican-controlled Senate sank it.
Greedy senators wanted more. They poisoned the legislation by stirring in a provision that would also allow thousands of grocery stores, convenience stores and other retailers to sell cans of premixed hard alcohol drinks to go.
Wolf said he would veto that version of the bill. The bar and restaurant lobby begged senators to change their minds. Last week, the House refused to go along with the revision and stripped it from the legislation, passing the original bill back to the Senate.
Senators packed their suitcases, turned off the lights and left the Capitol.
They won’t return until Sept. 20. So much for being full-time legislators.
Pennsylvanians will have to make their own margaritas this summer. I hope you have a reliable blender.
I lamented a few weeks ago how unnecessary this controversy was. Senators should have passed the bill that everyone agreed with. Then later they could have addressed expanding liquor sales to go.
Many other states have legalized the permanent sales of cocktails to go, or continued temporary sales. Pennsylvania should be embarrassed that it hasn’t.
Instead, bars and restaurants are held hostage as part of the Senate’s drive to privatize liquor sales.
They aren’t the only hostages abandoned in the Capitol for the summer.
County election workers had their hands tied by the Legislature too.
They have been pleading with legislators to allow mail ballots to be processed before Election Day. An earlier start would relieve the stress and workload on county staffs. It also would allow election results to be tabulated sooner.
Again, there is bipartisan agreement on that.
But instead of passing simple legislation allowing it, the Legislature opted to include that change in broader legislation that didn’t have universal support and was vetoed by Wolf on Wednesday.
That bill that would have required voters to show identification when going to the polls; shortened the time voters have to request a mail ballot before an election; and shortened the period to register to vote before an election.
There may still be time to address the early processing of mail ballots before the November election. If lawmakers make it a priority after they return in September (the House doesn’t return until Sept. 27), they could do it.
I doubt that will happen.
Republican lawmakers are holding that bargaining chip to get other changes they want to the elections system, most notably the voter ID requirement.
Meanwhile, they will fuss when election counts aren’t completed on Election Day. And they will continue to scream about how unfairly restaurants were treated during the pandemic.
When you hear them fussing and screaming, remind them that they could have done something about it. They didn’t, then skipped town for the summer.