wine and spirits reasonably avail- able to all legal consumers throughout the state, something private retailers are not.
Stapleton and Conti are using their testimony before various state
NABCA Chairman
Incoming
legislature committees as an opportunity to ask those legislators to let them modernize the operations at the PLCB even more. Stapleton explained that they are asking for changes in three separate areas. One is how the PLCB prices products. Right now, it is required to use the same 30-percent mark-up on every product. “We’d like to have more latitude, to be more like a private enterprise,” explained Stapleton.
most suited.
Stapleton also testified that the PLCB wasn’t opposed to direct shipping – right to the cus- tomer’s home instead of to the nearest state store – as long as there was a system in place to verify that the purchaser is of legal age.
In addition, the PLCB also asked the legislature to approve expanded Sunday sales, both raising the num-
Stapleton pointed out. “It doesn’t cover customer service or product knowledge.” The PLCB wants more freedom to hire the right people for their job openings and to place people where they are
“It is the state legislature that makes decisions about everything we do. We simply provide information. There is a lot of information about control that is unknown to legislators and governors. We shed light.”
— Incoming NABCA Chairman Patrick J. Stapleton III
The second area of change is in how the PLCB procures things for its operations, such as the store spaces it leases and the credit-card processing com- panies it uses. Though wines and spirits are exempt from the state rules, the PLCB must abide by the regulations for all its other needs. “It makes for a slow and arduous process,” said Stapleton. “If we could procure things on a more timely basis, it would save vast amounts of money.”
The third change the PLCB would like to make is in how it hires and places its employees. Right now, like other state employees, PLCB staff must pass a civil-service exam. “But the civil-service exam asks general questions of everyone applying for a certain broad category of government job,”
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ber of state stores that could open on Sundays (cur- rently capped at 25 percent of all stores) and allowing them to stay open longer that day: from noon to 8 pm rather than from the current noon to 5 pm. It seems that the tide of opinion, at least among state legislators, might be turning. Although House Majority Leader Mike Turzai had been widely expected to introduce a privatization bill early, he has yet to do so and Governor Corbett has not called for one to help with this year’s budget. Instead, Corbett has commissioned an independent impact study, whose findings are due in July. Meanwhile, three Democratic state senators have drafted legislation that would allow the PLCB to make the three changes Stapleton and
StateWays www.stateways.com May/June 2011
