Even Corbett, a steadfast supporter of privatization, has joined that chorus.
That means the state liquor system that dates to the end of Prohibition will likely be around a while longer - no shock to any Pennsylvanian who drinks, pays taxes, or votes - especially if the agency can make enough changes to answer, one by one, the arguments for privatizing.
"I think the philosophical zealots will still be very aggressive in trying to push privatization, but I do think modernization has taken center stage now," said Wendell W. Young IV, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776, which represents 3,000 employees in the State Stores. "The more practical majority in the legislature is looking at how to make what we have work most effectively for consumers."
Or perhaps, that "more practical majority" knows it's an election year, when legislators generally shrink from the kind of bold action that might rouse opposition from powerful political forces such as Young's union.
Corbett, for his part, campaigned in 2010 on a staunch pro-privatization platform, arguing that the state had no business being in the liquor business.
In the early months after he took office in January 2011, he rarely gave a speech that didn't argue the case. Whether speaking to a roomful of Republicans at the state party's winter meeting, or addressing Pennsylvanians in his first budget speech, the governor always paused to reiterate his belief that the private sector should take over the sale of wine and hard liquor in Pennsylvania.
Then a top House Republican presented a bill to do just that: House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R., Allegheny) last summer proposed auctioning off the retail and wholesale operations of the LCB.
