Latest Liquor Plan Fails to be ‘Everything to Everybody’

HARRISBURG, June 18, 2013 – State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today released the following statement regarding Sen. McIlhinney’s liquor proposal:

“I am grateful to Sen. McIlhinney for taking the time and making the effort to listen to a broad range of opinions on the short-sighted House liquor privatization bill.  Unfortunately, the result appears to be a bill that tries to be everything to everybody, and in that attempt serves to only delay massive job losses and only temporarily slow down the big-box liquor frenzy the House bill would produce.

Over a slightly longer period of time, the result would be the same and Pennsylvania taxpayers wouldn’t even see the overstated revenue in the House plan. In a few years, beer distributors, small grocers, locally owned convenience stores and specialty wine shops will have gone the way of the stationary store and the corner hardware store: replaced by large corporations with no community connection and responsible only to shareholders.

It was a terrible thing when this happened to small Pennsylvania retailers selling paper clips or hand tools.  But when the sale of a commodity as dangerous as liquor is turned over to large corporations, a minimum-wage workforce and a profit-over-all philosophy, the result will be worse than just the loss of local businesses.

With a stubbornly high unemployment rate, schools laying off thousands of employees, and the nation’s largest inventory of unsafe bridges, it’s hard to imagine that making liquor easier to buy is a priority.

The Senate should consider a streamlined modernization plan and get back to the real job of putting Pennsylvanians back to work rebuilding our long-ignored infrastructure.”

Tartaglione Statement on Liquor Privatization

HARRISBURG, January 30, 2013State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione today released the following statement regarding Gov. Corbett’s plans for Pennsylvania liquor stores:

“It’s obvious that there is little support in the General Assembly for the governor’s strange agenda and holding school funding hostage reveals a sad desperation.

After gutting staffing for unemployment call centers, Gov. Corbett’s plans for selling off liquor stores and handing the lottery to a foreign company would push the number of family sustaining jobs he wants to eliminate or ship overseas to more than 5,000.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle want Pennsylvania children to get a first –class education and they’re willing to work to find a stable, sound revenue plan for the future.  They’re not going to fall for a liquor-for-schools scheme. Both the lottery and the liquor store systems are returning significant revenue to the state, while providing jobs that keep families out of the social service safety net and provide substantial local tax revenue.

These are the type of jobs that Pennsylvania public policy should be fostering and encouraging, rather than eliminating or shipping overseas.

While Pennsylvania’s job-creation ranking has plummeted and its unemployment rate has remained stubbornly high, the administration has busied itself by tinkering with the parts of state government that are functioning well.

Making it a little easier and a little cheaper to purchase alcohol is an odd priority to hold while our cities struggle to put enough police on the street to make people feel safe, while a million citizens have no access to health care and while urban and rural schools wonder how they’re going to make ends meet.

Gov. Corbett should be making jobs, health care and education easier to get not booze.”