Drunkenly Barfing On Gifford Pinchot's Grave: A call for Alcohol Policy Reform in the state of Pennsylvania

        “Mmm”, I said to myself, “perhaps I’ll relax tonight with a six pack of beer”, my plans for the night was made after a long week of rain, lots of homework, and dealing with an unusual high amount of traffic throughout the week. With the plan set in motion, I made my way to the beer store, well, the beer distributor. As I pulled into the parking lot, I soon remembered “oh..you can only by a 24 case of beer in this state, ok I’ll go to the bar.” So I turned around and left the parking lot to make my way down the next street to go to a bar that I know sells six packs. Silly of me to think that they would sell anything good, “Miller lite is the only beer you can get to go here” I was told. “Sigh”, in reply, I made my way over to the next bar, which had a carry out area with “more” selections, however, in the year 2010, in a Toll Brother’s built suburbia..the carry out area did not accept credit or debit. Really? Considering the fact that I do not use cash all that often, this alienated me as a possible customer. I went onto another bar that over charged for their beers, by this point of the night I figured the hell with it, maybe I’ll have a bottle of wine instead of a six pack of decent quality beer that apparently does not exist in suburban bars. I swung by the Wine & Spirits to only be reminded that everything that is sold under the Wine & Spirits monopoly is $10-20 extra in cost versus the price that they are sold across state lines (but wait, transporting alcohol across state lines is illegal!) By this point I gave up, I was not willing to purchase a case of beer as I don’t drink that often, and by purchasing a case I would feel compelled to finish it over the weekend. The first bar would only sell Miller lite, a joke for a beer snob like myself, the second bar only accepted cash, a joke for a 2010 customer, and the third bar sold a Gulden Draak at $15 a bottle, a joke because across the river I could buy the beer (and drink at a friends over there) for $4 a bottle. The same with wine, the wine was over priced for what I could get in New Jersey. The mission of Governor Gifford Pinchot to “discourage the purchase of alcoholic beverages by making it as inconvenient and expensive as possible” (A) was successful this evening. A point won by Pinchot’s ghost, yet a point lost not just on myself, but a point lost on Pennsylvania’s economy. In an age when states across the United States of America are facing budget shortfalls, thus having to roll back spending and find new forms of revenue. The “full privatization of Pennsylvania's wholesale and retail liquor structure could return $1.7 billion to state coffers in one-time sell-off payments.” (B) If this is true, it would be a wise choice by Pennsylvania to privatize the state’s monopoly on alcohol sales.

         “Pennsylvania has been criticized as having one of the most outdated and arcane state run alcohol sales regimes” (C), read a veto that Governor Ed Rendell gave for Bill 81 that would essentially make the states alcohol laws even more restrictive . It is shocking that a bill that is met to make an archaic regime even more strict made its way to the Governor’s desk. At least for the sake of Pennsylvanians, the Governor had the common sense to reject this bill. Despite the horror of this bill, another bill introduced by State Senator Rafferty, SB 1300, is met to liberalize the sale of beer, allowing convenient and grocery stores to sell six packs of beer. There is much fan fare behind this bill, however, with any bill in either the State or the Federal government, there is always a special interest group that may be effected by the outcome of the bill’s possible passage. In Pennsylvania this special interest group is the MDMAPA (Malt Beverage Distributors Association of Pennsylvania).

        The MDMAPA (we will call them MDMA from now on in this blog) much rather see the liberalization of six packs to only be sold by the distributor. However this is a “step” forward, it’s still not exactly where Pennsylvania needs to go with it’s alcohol policies. While MDMA is worried about competition, through competition the price of alcohol would go down which is good for the consumers pocket. MDMA likes to point out however that the competition may kill smaller breweries, thus costing Pennsylvanian more in the long run. This claim is just an effort to take a stance of any unfavorable liberalization of the alcohol policy in order for the MDMA to keep their monopoly over beer. If one was to look at states such as Oregon, and Vermont, one can easily walk into a grocery store or convenient store and find a number of locally brewed beers that one has never heard of. Also, if the distributors are worried about the sales of microbrews going flat, one needs to look at who is buying this microbrews in the first place. It’s not the Miller lite guy, its the guy that actually enjoys a real beer. So if the guy who enjoys real beer can’t find any good selections else where, he will go some place else that has such a selection. From this, distributors can become appealing to the beer snobs by carrying a number of specialized imports from around the world and microbrews from across the states. Ideally with the ability to sell in six packs as well.

        “Among states with retail operations, Pennsylvania probably has a lower return to the general fund because it loses business to neighboring states…State liquor taxes drive prices to the point that customers living near the borders buy their booze in those states” (D) By going across the border, people are taking their money else where. Granted, Pennsylvania is trying to make it more convenient for shoppers to purchase alcohol in the state. With beer distributors and bars in the same shopping plazas as grocery stores, Wine & Spirits shops that connect to grocery stores such as McCafferties in Yardley, Pennsylvania, and with the introduction to a Kiosk system that has been described by some as the Red Box for wines. The kiosk system has been getting much fanfare and hype to those who are non-snobbish about what they drink. However like a Red Box DVD rental vending machine, the selections are at best, laughable. They are the populists choice, “Avatar” for a DVD, “Yellowtail” for a wine. Both of which in my personal opinion are equivalent to nothing more then a toad’s vomit. The selections are sanctioned by the room in which this machines can hold. Perhaps a good choice for someone who doesn’t care what kind of wine they drink, or movie they watch. The Kiosk system however is a radical move, and while it brings convenience to the general shopper, it does not answer the demands from some one who looks for Quality - over Quantity. It’s just another attempt by the PCBL to fend off demands to sell off it’s monopoly and privatize the industry.

        In states such as Oregon, you can have wine shipped to your house. Just as Red Box DVDs are soon to probably go out of style as Itunes, Netflix, Verizon/Comcast On Demand makes it easier to watch straight from home, the Kiosks will last for a bit but not for long. They are okay for the shopper who is not too picky about their brand, or are looking for a cheap cooking wine. However the hassle of having to be breathalyzed and the possibilities that the breathalyzer picks up mouthwash, or Listerine mouth strips as a part of alcoholic readings, could prove to be disastrous. It’s too unbearable to deal with a Red Box, or a wine kiosk, ideally in the near future we can allow wines to be purchased and shipped through Fedex or UPS with the requirement of matching name and person receiving the package with an ID, that proves the person is over 21.

        If the Tea Party activist are for less government interference in one’s personal life, and are anti-socialist tendencies, an issue such as liberalizing and privatizing the sale of alcohol should become a primary campaign issue in the near future. Despite the understanding that certain special interest (who are well mobilized) are against such changes in the law, we must over come the opposition of the well mobilized, which represents the interest of only themselves and their associates and not the populous in the state. We must look at the need to sell off this monopoly, bring in the revenue from the sale back into the state to help the general budget and it’s current short falls. Mean while, even after the sale of such a socialistic monopoly, we maintain the taxes that are paid on the product thus keeping revenue from the product flowing into the state’s budget. Just as the F-22 provided jobs throughout the country, and the districts involved were staunchly against axing such a program, the program itself was inefficient, and eventually had bipartisan support to ax it despite the amount of special interest opposition. A line can be drawn from the F-22 project to the monopoly that the state of Pennsylvania holds over its alcohol sales. The monopoly is costly and burdensome to the tax payers of Pennsylvania. If we really want to talk seriously about cutting costs and raising revenue in the state of Pennsylvania, axing the monopoly should be the first place that we look to - not pensions, - closing down state parks, and not cutting the states funding to universities and community colleges.

       This blog entry may seem like a declaration of sorts, but it’s not. I am merely adding to the growing voices in the blogosphere, online media world voicing their support to end the state of Pennsylvania’s monopoly. One of the leading efforts of this call is Lew Bryson’s blog, his facebook group can be found here. In the process please invite all your friends, and your friends - friends, etc etc to both these groups in effort to raise awareness on the issue, need and challenges of changing the way alcohol is sold in Pennsylvania. Keep up the good work Lew Bryson, and lets try to get more and more people to write blog entries in support for alcohol policy reform/privatization.

Some useful links

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/governor-rendell-vetoes-senate-bill-81-93799649.html (C)

http://www.philadelphiaweekly.com/news-and-opinion/PA-disgraceful-liquor-loaws.html

http://blog.beliefnet.com/roddreher/2010/07/pa-state-wine-commissars-tech-fail.html

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-08-02-winekiosks02_ST_N.htm

http://www.storefrontbacktalk.com/securityfraud/pennsylvania-toys-with-self-service-winekiosks-withintegrated-facial-recognition-and-breathalyzers/

http://www.dailyfinance.com/story/wine-vending-machines-in-pennsylvania/19626049/

http://philadelphia.bizjournals.com/philadelphia/stories/2010/10/04/story6.html?b=1286164800^4026451

http://www.pennlive.com/specialprojects/index.ssf/2009/06/big_ideas_for_pennsylvania_lcb.html

http://www.taxfoundation.org/taxdata/show/245.html

(A)  http://books.google.com/books?id=KfZ3k6iz3NQC&printsec=frontcover&dq=%22Yuengling+A+History+of+America's+Oldest+Brewery+by+Mark+A.+Noon&source=bl&ots=_8wn8eGiMn&sig=UcmU5RY39Eor24ZC3bZLwEFWQlc&hl=en&ei=vJimTMS_EcP6lwfowqgX&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&sqi=2&ved=0CBIQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=false

(B/D) http://reason.org/files/7f7554148c4ea620727a4243e7d49020.pdf

http://reason.org/blog/show/liquor-pa-rube-goldberg

http://isc.temple.edu/economics/wkpapers/alcohol/COMMON.html

http://www.effwa.org/inbriefs/v12_n2.php

http://www.mbdapa.org/news/a-six-pack-of-controversy-to-go/

http://www.mbdapa.org/Rafferty%20BeerTalkingPoints.021610.pdf

http://www.mbdapa.org/news/sen-rafferty-sponsors-sb-1300/

http://www.mbdapa.org/news/hearings-planned-on-privatizing-liquor-stores/

http://noplcb.blogspot.com/2009/01/reason-13-their-hand-is-in-your-pocket.html

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08030/853225-85.stm

E. http://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/billinfo/bill_history.cfm?syear=2009&sind=0&body=S&type=B&bn=100