HARRISBURG — Republican gubernatorial candidate Tom Corbett says he will work to get the state out of the liquor and wine business if he's elected governor, while Democrat Dan Onorato's campaign said he would strive to make the state stores more appealing.

Corbett, the state attorney general who faces Democratic nominee Dan Onorato in the Nov. 2 election, said his privatization plan would maintain hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and other revenues generated by the state-store system and also provide a sizable nest egg to ease some of the financial pressures facing state government.

"Given the current economic climate in Pennsylvania, state government can no longer be in the liquor store business," he said in a statement Tuesday. "We need to move our state out of the 19th century and refocus state government on its core functions and services."

Onorato, the elected executive of Allegheny County, would retain the state-store system and try to make it more convenient and customer-friendly, said campaign spokesman Brian Herman.

At a time the next governor is likely to face a multibillion-dollar shortfall, "the state stores are making the state money," Herman said.

Pennsylvania is one of only nine states that control the sale of both spirits and wine at the retail level, according to the National Alcohol Beverage Control Association.

Corbett wants to liquidate the liquor and wine business now handled by the 620 state stores by selling wholesale and retail licenses to private businesses, said campaign spokesman Kevin Harley.

The proceeds from the license sales are estimated by a leading privatization advocate in the Legislature to be at least $2 billion.