Raise a glass to modernizing Pa. booze sales

There will be a new twist when it comes to your holiday party planning this year, courtesy of our friends in Harrisburg. Looking for a beer to make merry? Well, as opposed to what has been the case so often in the past, you’ve got some choices to make.

Interested in a case? You’ll still have to visit your local beer distributor?

But what if you only need a six- or 12-pack? No problem. You’ll soon be able to snag those at your local beer store as well.

All of this is the result of some serious tinkering the Legislature has been doing with the archaic laws that regulate the sale of booze in Pennsylvania.

For decades that has fallen under the iron fist of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, a relic left over from Prohibition whose main mission seems to be making it as difficult — and expensive — as possible to purchase wine and spirits, while at the same time making as much money for the Commonwealth as possible.

The idea was positively Byzantine. Want to buy a bottle of wine or liquor? Well, step right up to your friendly state store.

Oh, you say beer is your libation of choice? Well, that’s means making a second trip.

If you want a case you have to visit your local beer distributor. If you want a six-pack, that puts you at the mercy — and the high prices — of local delis and taverns with a special license. Yes, that’s three trips.

Slowly but surely, that is changing. You can now buy beer in lots of supermarkets, albeit only two six-packs at a time. Legislation passed this summer and signed by Gov. Wolf also brought wine sales into your local grocery store as well.

As for convenience, well that’s a matter of debate. You still have to visit a separate part of the store and pay for your booze separately. You can’t simply toss it in the cart along with the rest of your groceries and pay for it all at once.

Another big change is on tap — figuratively if not literally — on Jan. 14. That’s when your local beer distributor will be allowed to sell beer in quantities other than a case or the recently added 12-packs. Yep, you’ll be able to snag a six-pack, 32-ounce bottle or growler. Looking to experiment? You’ll be able to buy singles as well.

The law passed last summer did a few other things as well. It’s likely beer sales will soon be showing up in some convenience stores.

Wine lovers also now have a bit of what has heretofore been forbidden fruit — or grapes — with the ability to buy directly from out-of-state wineries, even if the Pennsylvania will continue to slap taxes on those purchases. All of these changes are a welcome shift in the Commonwealth’s position. But it’s not enough. Poll after poll has indicated Pennsylvania residents want what most other states already provide — private enterprise. In short, they want Pennsylvania out of the booze business. We could not agree more. The state simply has no business running a private monopoly when it could be done better — with more benefits and convenience for consumers — by private enterprise. Just imagine the idea of Pennsylvania residents no longer flocking south on I-95 for the ability to visit the liquor super stores that lie just over the border.

They have better selection, and prices, to say nothing of being tax-free. So why hasn’t it happened? The answer to that lies in one word: Harrisburg.

Republicans have long pushed for privatization, even doing something that has never been done before, getting a privatization bill through the House. But they continue to hit brick a wall with Democrats, as well as Gov. Tom Wolf, who insist the current system of the PLCB and state stores simply needs “modernization.”

Their real concern is all those state store union jobs that support them and their positions.

The state has a lot of serious issues that need to be addressed in Harrisburg. The deficit continues to grow and no doubt Wolf and the Legislature will be at each other’s throats shortly after the governor rolls out his next spending plan in February.

The “ticking time bomb” in the budget process, the state’s vastly underfunded public employee pension plans, continues to hemorrhage money. Eventually someone is going to have to pay that tab.

We appreciate that our elected representatives have eased some of the state’s more restrictive booze policies.

But the point is they need to blow it up and get on with the serious issues facing the state.

We’ll be there to raise a glass when they do.