On our editorial page today, we raise a glass to toast the latest move by new Sen. Tom Killion to force Pennsylvania out of the Dark Ages when it comes to alcohol sales.
Killion, a big-time backer of privatizing the entire system, had to settle for Act 39 like the rest of us.
It did a number of good things, including expanding the sale of wine for the first time to supermarkets that had a restaurant license. It also expanded hours of state stores and allowed more to open on Sunday.
But there is one thing it did not do.
Killion visited a beer distributor this week to note that these for the most part family-owned businesses increasingly are working in what now amounts to an unfair playing field.
First supermarkets were allowed to enter the field of beer sales, once solely the purview of the distributors, as well as some taverns and delis.
Supermarkets can now sell you two six-packs at a time. Now they're adding wine, with the new law allowing them to sell four bottles at a time.
Beer distributors rightly called out, "What about us?"
Yes, they did recently get the ability to also sell 12-packs, instead of the cases and kegs they were limited to previously.
Killion will introduce legislation to allow them to also sell wine, same as the supermarkets.
Only seems fair to us.
It's not privatization, but for now it's better than what we had for years in Pennsylvania.
Read the editorial here.
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