Should state have control over Pa. liquor stores?

    People who fall on hard times often consider selling their valuable possessions to bring in a little cash. With Pennsylvania facing budget problems, some Pennsylvania politicians see dollar signs in the state’s treasure chest of liquor stores.

    People who fall on hard times often consider selling their valuable possessions to bring in a little cash. With Pennsylvania facing budget problems, some Pennsylvania politicians see dollar signs in the state’s treasure chest of liquor stores.

    Walking out of a Wine and Spirits Shoppe near 12th and Market Streets in Center City Philadelphia, attorney Quentin Brooks is holding a bottle of scotch he just bought. The East Mt. Airy resident supports the privatization for revenue…and other reasons,

    Brooks: I think entrepreneurs ought to have the benefit of selling to private citizens and the state, and there’d be more competition in terms of prices. I don’t think the state needs to have control. It should be more like New York, New Jersey and other states.

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    Passing by a few minutes later, South Philadelphian Sara Selepouchin says she’s more of a beer drinker. But she supports the privatization too.

    Selepouchin: Or if they’re not going to privatize the liquor stores, at least re-consider the beer distribution…It’s 2010 afterall, it seems kind of archaic. But yeah privatizing the liquor stores would be just another way they could be a little bit more hands off and let people make their own decisions as at where they buy their liquor!”

    The candidates for Pennsylvania Governor are weighing in too. Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett supports privatizing the state-run liquor store system, citing the state’s need for additional revenues.

    Corbett’s opponent, Democrat Dan Onorato, is hesitant to sell off the stores given the hundreds of millions of dollars of revenue they generate for the state each year.

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