Pa. House to take up liquor privatization plan — again

A plan to sell off Pennsylvania’s roughly 600 wine and spirits stores has the support of the governor, but it’s still stalling in the House.

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai says his bill’s not dead, but he won’t say whether the votes are there to pass it.

“It’s scheduled to run on Monday,” Turzai, R-Allegheny, said Friday.

It wouldn’t be the first Monday the plan has been brought up on the House floor.

A week ago, debate went on for hours before leaders finally pulled the plug.

The proposal wasn’t brought up at all for the rest of the week.

Barry McCowin of Harrisburg says he’d like the state to sell off its wine and spirits stores, but he’s not holding his breath.

“Not this year. It’s going to drag out,” said McCowin. “If I had to bet on it, I wouldn’t think so, because that’s revenue for the state.

The latest iteration of the plan would create 1,600 liquor licenses, to be sold or auctioned at the county level.

Beer distributors would be allowed in on the wine and spirits sales, and new rules would allow them to sell not just cases and kegs, but also six-packs.

No cap would be placed on the number of six-packs people could buy at a time.