By Anthony Hennen | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Pennsylvanians are set to pay more for liquor and wine in 2023, and at least one Republican lawmaker is crying foul.
Since the state owns roughly 600 Fine Wine & Good Spirits stores, setting prices is the responsibility of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB). In a Jan. 5 letter shared with The Center Square, the board alerted suppliers to a planned 4% price increase.
Shawn Kelly, a PLCB spokesman, emphasized that the price hike is not a tax and the board does not have legal authority to raise or lower alcohol taxes.
Instead, the change was “approved administratively,” Kelly noted, and was not on the PLCB’s meeting agenda Wednesday.
The decision, according to the PLCB, was driven by “economic necessities related to a 40-year high inflation rate impacting manufacturers and retailers across the globe.”
In the letter, the board said the increase will affect more than 3,500 of the “most popular items, a fair and consistent, across-the-board increase beginning Jan. 15. The money from the price increase is expected to offset labor and distribution costs, along with leases and credit card fees.
“Despite facing pandemic- and inflation-related cost increases for several years, the PLCB has resisted raising Fine Wine & Good Spirits retail prices, beyond passing along vendor cost increases to consumers, since 2019,” the letter said.
“This is a retail price increase just as you would see in any retailer,” Kelly said. “For us to implement a price increase is a relatively rare occurrence.”
The increase is also reflective of the economy as a whole, he added.
“Like most retailers in the country, we’re faced with the exact same things that they are,” Kelly said. “It’s not something that we undertake lightly; we understand the financial pressures that people are under, it’s just something that had to be done because of the current economic conditions.”
The PLCB apologized to suppliers for the “short notice,” but one Republican lawmaker tied the change to an outgoing gubernatorial administration.
“I am very troubled by the lack of transparency and timing of the announcement,” Sen. Mike Regan, R-Dillsburg, said in a letter opposing the price increase. “Not only has the board granted full discretion to staff with no board approval required, but the Wolf administration also ends on January 17th, 2023. Imposing a last-minute, additional liquor tax on Pennsylvania consumers, in the waning hours of an administration, undermines the public’s faith in government and is bad public policy.”
Beyond the price increase, Regan aired broader concerns about recent PLCB decisions.
“During my time as both chairman and a sitting member of the committee, the board has lacked transparency in situations such as closing state stores and rationing products,” he said. “Even after the repeated requests for more transparency, the PLCB continues to operate and make decisions behind closed doors.”
Wine and spirit sales in Pennsylvania topped $3 billion in 2021-2022, The Center Square previously reported. Total sales increased almost 4%, but retail sales had fallen 3.4%. Kelly previously said the Board was “happy with our performance.” Operating expenses have also steadily dropped, with a 20% reduction since 2017-2018.
