by KYW's Tony Romeo
Pennsylvania’s scheme for liquor licenses is a complicated one.
What does it take to get a liquor license in Pennsylvania? First and foremost, money -- lots of it. And how much depends in part on where you are.
PJ Stapleton is chairman of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board:
“There are licenses that are sold in some parts of the state in excess of $300,000 to $400,000. There are licenses sold in other places for less than $100,000.”
For the most part, there are a set number of liquor licenses in Pennsylvania -- more than 17,000 in total -- allocated to each municipality by a formula that was cooked up decades ago. They are generally sold from one licensee to another, and prospective buyers are vetted by the LCB.
Licenses in one municipality can be sold to a purchaser in another within a particular county, if the municipality accepts it. But now, the result has been a glut of licenses in the city of Philadelphia, which has lost population.
Rep. Robert Donatucci (D-Phila.) is chairman of the House Liquor Control Committee:
"If we decide to create new licenses for other counties, I don’t want a new license. I want them to be able to go into Philadelphia (to buy one). You who have an investment in that license (would) be able to sell it.”
But suburban Republican John Rafferty, the chairman of the state senate committee that has oversight of alcohol issues, has concerns about that:
“If you open the door and say 'free flow of licenses,' all of a sudden those establishments in the suburban counties that have been long time there, are now having this plethora of licenses (to compete against).”
Rafferty, meanwhile, says lawmakers are discussing the possibility of a new liquor license for volunteer fire company social halls.
(Photo by KYW's Ed Fischer)
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