State Stores

Pennsylvania takes in approximately $90.000.000 annually from its state-owned liquor stores.  Governor Corbett is proposing to sell those stores; he predicts the sale will bring in a one-time windfall of $2 billion dollars to help to make up for the deficit facing the state.

This is a gimmick, pure and simple.  It is the equivalent of eating the seed corn. It eliminates a steady source of revenue and does nothing to solve long-term budgetary problems.  

Many Pennsylvanians, of course, support privatization of the liquor stores, although most of them probably haven’t lived in states with a plethora of wine and liquor outlets in every supermarket and mom and pop grocery.  They probably haven’t seen inebriated winos frequenting the local liquor store to buy their bottles of tokay.  They may not have thought about how, with private liquor stores, you can buy a bottle of booze at any hour, although that may be one reason why Mothers Against Drunk Driving opposes privatization.