A toast to sale of state stores

Seems like I’m not alone in my holiday wish.

A new poll indicates nine out of 10 Pennsylvania residents regard the state’s budget woes as serious. Nothing new there, right? But a majority also are in favor of the state selling off the state store system to help get bail out the budget blues.

Sip, sip, hooray!

A confession here. I don’t know the numbers involved in all this. I know that the sale of the state store system would provide a huge one-time cash influx, and that has to be compared to the annual revenue brought in from the state store system.

To be honest, that’s not my concern, nor my issue when it comes to my one-man campaign to get Pennsylvania out of the booze business.

My concern is purely selfish.

I’m tired of making three or four trips every time I need an alcoholic beverage.

That’s as in one stop for a six-pack, another if I should be so daring as to purchase a case of beer. And still one more jaunt if I need a bottle of wine or some other “spirit.”

I yearn for the days of my youth, when I grew up in Oxford, and I would routinely join the hordes of folks making the short drive to Maryland where you could make all your alcohol purchases in one place. Yes, I broke the law.

How many people do you think will scoot down I-95 into Delaware or over a bridge to Jersey this holiday season to purchase their beverage of choice.

The time has come. Gov.-Elect Tom Corbett campaigned on the idea that he would push for just such a proposal.

I’ll drink to that.

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