HARRISBURG -- Auditor General Jack Wagner is scheduled to testify today before a House committee that legislation to privatize state liquor stores "is a bad deal for taxpayers and a bad deal for customers."
Wagner of Beechview said he is convinced that private liquor and wine stores would fall short of providing the $470 million raised annually in taxes and profit. He said selling the state's retail and wholesale licenses would bring in far less than the estimated $1.1 billion to $1.6 billion cited in a recent consultant's report. He said he believes it would bring about one-third of that -- closer to the $500 million estimated when former Gov. Tom Ridge tried to sell the state stores in the 1990s.
"The one-time windfall would not be a significant windfall," Wagner said.
Instead, the system needs to be "modernized" by taking restraints off the Liquor Control Board, Wagner said. Current law prohibits most stores from staying open on Sundays or doing business on holidays, he said. He'll testify in Philadelphia before the House Liquor Control Committee.
Gov. Tom Corbett and House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Bradford Woods, are pushing state store privatization.
