Top 5 Ways Liquor Monopoly Wastes Your Money

There’s good reason why other states, like Washington, have moved to get government out of the booze business, and aren’t looking to copy Pennsylvania’s flawed monopoly model

This post is part of a series looking at the reasons why the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) should be dissolved, giving you liquor freedom!

The state-run monopoly burns through tax dollars.

  1. The Wine Shrine. As a taxpayer, you own a Wine Shrine. You’ll never use it, but you paid more than $35,000 for a deluxe wine tasting room complete with leather sofas, flat-screen televisions, and wine and spirits from across the world. Why? So that a government employed tasting team replete with hefty taxpayer-funded pensions can sit in the lap of luxury and choose what booze the state offers. They say it’s to “educate your palette,” because clearly government knows what you like better than you can.
  2. Free Booze for Broken Bottles. State liquor stores have a policy whereby consumers can simply pour out bottle contents, break the bottle, return it to the PLCB and they will replace it, no questions asked! You can’t make this stuff up. They lost $2.5 million worth of wine and liquor: bottles broken, stolen or just plain missing. The year before, it was $3 million!  
  3. Bankrolled iPhone application. Instead of bringing us into the 21st century by joining the 48 other states that have moved beyond total state control over wine and liquor sales, the PLCB brings you an iPhone application. The Fine Wine & Good Sprits iPhone app costs taxpayers $100,000.
  4. $2 million per adjective! The PLCB spent an estimated $3.7 million in taxpayer money just to change store names from Wine and Spirits to Fine Wine and Good Spirits. That’s nearly $2 million per adjective!
  5. Touchdown, taxpayers? Try a fumble in freedom! In two years, the PLCB has spent nearly $1 million in advertising with the Philadelphia Eagles.