Lcb

The Pennsylvania House and Senate Appropriations Committees met this week to address modernizing everyone's favorite monopoly, the state Liquor Control Board. Right there, you've got your first problem. Pennsylvania, the land time forgot, doesn't do change. The board was founded at the end of Prohibition to, as Gov. Gifford Pinchot declared, "discourage the purchase of alcoholic beverages by making it as inconvenient and expensive as possible," a promise we can agree it has made good on to this day. We have the "temporary" 18 percent Johnstown Flood Tax that dates to 1936.

HARRISBURG - Jobs are going unfilled. Morale is low. Even the chairman says he doesn't believe the state should be in the booze business. Yet the agency that runs Pennsylvania's liquor stores says that even in the face of Gov. Corbett's efforts to privatize its retail and wholesale operations, it is more productive than ever. Such was the testimony Monday by top officials at the Liquor Control Board budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. LCB brass said they have been turning more than $100 million a year in profit for the last several years - and kicking more than $80 million of that into the state's cash-strapped coffers.

HARRISBURG - Jobs are going unfilled. Morale is low. Even the chairman says he doesn't believe the state should be in the booze business. Yet the agency that runs Pennsylvania's liquor stores says that even in the face of Gov. Corbett's efforts to privatize its retail and wholesale operations, it is more productive than ever. Such was the testimony Monday by top officials at the Liquor Control Board budget hearing before the Senate Appropriations Committee. LCB brass said they have been turning more than $100 million a year in profit for the last several years - and kicking more than $80 million of that into the state's cash-strapped coffers.

Pressing his campaign to privatize Pennsylvania liquor sales, Gov. Corbett borrowed a staff member's smartphone at a Philadelphia news conference to show a photograph and drive home a point. " 'Welcome, visitors. Sorry, no beer. We sell only wine and spirits. Beer is sold four lights up at 12th and Walnut Streets,' " he said, reading from the photo of a sign posted at a state liquor store in Center City. "That speaks to what we are talking about," the governor said. The point of his plan, he said, is consumer choice and convenience.

Gov. Corbett is expected to announce his plan Wednesday for privatizing Pennsylvania's 600-plus state liquor stores. He has scheduled an afternoon news conference in Pittsburgh for the long-awaited announcement. Though the administration has tried to keep details of the plan private, top Corbett officials have been met with groups with a stake in the liquor market over the last few weeks. In those meetings, Corbett aides have signalled that they want the system squarely in private hands, and that they want to open up the wine and beer market to grocery stores, convenience stores, restaurants and taverns, and big-box stores.

In at least one respect, Joe Conti, the (sort of) outgoing head of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board, is the perfect man for the job: We can't seem to get rid of the LCB, and we can't seem to get rid of Conti, either. Conti is serving his last week as the alcohol monopoly's CEO, but he and the agency have already seen to it that his retirement party will presage a throbbing hangover. Two weeks after he leaves his $156,000-a-year post, The Inquirer reported last week, Conti will be eligible to return as a very costly temp.

HARRISBURG - Though Gov. Corbett has made no secret of his desire to abolish the chief executive officer's post at the Liquor Control Board, the oft-maligned agency clearly doesn't agree. It is not only temporarily bringing back its departing CEO, but it will pay him $80 an hour. The taxpayers will, that is. Such is the arrangement between the LCB and Joseph Conti, who made it known a week ago that his last day as chief executive officer would be next Friday. Under the agreement, Conti is to return Feb. 19 for up to 95 days, at $80.16 an hour.

HARRISBURG - The chief executive officer of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board is resigning his $156,000 post, even as Gov. Corbett prepares to make his most aggressive move yet to privatize the wine and liquor stores it runs. Joe Conti's letter of resignation was submitted Friday, according to a lawyer who is familiar with his decision and spoke on condition of anonymity. The lawyer said the LCB had agreed to let Conti return on a contractual basis temporarily to assist with the transition to a new chief executive.

GIVING IN-HOUSE brands it never should have created prime selling locations in stores - an unfair edge over competing private brands - is another way that the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board abuses its monopoly on wine and liquor sales. Documents obtained by the Trib via a state Right to Know Law request show the LCB's flagship in-house wine brand, TableLeaf, almost always gets the best sales positions on state-store floors and shelves. In 13 of TableLeaf's first 20 months on the market, it enjoyed one of the top five store spots for sales 17 times - more than any other brand.

Don't forget Leslie Richards Larry Platt's column on the new amity among the Montgomery County commissioners lauds Chairman Josh Shapiro and minority commissioner Bruce Castor ("Functionality restored on Montco board," Sunday). However, Platt completely overlooks Leslie Richards, vice chairman of the commissioners, who has brought a strong background in civil engineering to the board, which is especially important with all the infrastructure problems the county faces. Also ignored was Richards' adept leadership of the Whitemarsh Township commissioners.