HARRISBURG — A state Senate panel got the ball rolling Monday on what could become one of the hottest legislative issues in Pennsylvania this year: privatizing the sale of wine and liquor.

Senators on the Law and Justice Committee heard testimony on the experience of other states that have liberalized liquor laws. But without a bill before the committee, senators found few answers for their questions and sometimes didn’t like the answers they heard.

“As you can see, this is a very complex issue,” said committee chairman Sen. John Pippy, R-Allegheny.

Representatives of free-market-oriented think tanks and researchers focused on alcohol policy went before the committee.

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, is working on a privatization plan and has said it would bring $2 billion in one-time revenue into Pennsylvania by selling wholesale and retail liquor licenses. Proponents say privatization could bring a windfall that would help erase the state’s projected multibillion-dollar deficit.

But there are a number of ways to privatize the liquor system, and lawmakers have no up-to-date and independent analysis about what Turzai’s still-developing plan would mean financially.

Plus, privatization opponents, such as the union representing liquor store clerks, say Turzai has wildly overstated the potential financial benefit because he has based his projections on a flawed figure from a study completed in the 1990s.

Republicans appear to have no plans to introduce a bill in the Senate and seem to doubt that any privatization plan could be advanced far enough to be booked as revenue in an on-time budget for the next fiscal year.