State-run liquor stores defended
HARRISBURG — A leader of the union that represents most employees of Pennsylvania’s state-owned liquor and wine stores says they do a better job of collecting taxes and preventing underage drinking than private businesses would do.
Wendell Young IV of Local 1776 of the United Food and Commercial Workers union spoke Monday at a Pennsylvania Press Club luncheon here.
Gov. Tom Corbett has said he supports privatizing the state-store system to help generate additional state revenue.
But Young says proponents’ figures are flawed. He says privatization would result in a reduction in tax collections from liquor and wine sales that would require increasing prices by 25 percent to make up.
Young says state stores have a reputation for enforcing the law that discourages underage people from trying to buy liquor.