Governor Tom Corbett says his plan to sell the Pennsylvania wine and spirit monopoly will be revenue neutral after raising an initial one billion dollars the Governor hopes to use in education funding.
The plan would replace the state's 600 Wine and Spirit shops with 1200 private licenses, and would also allow wine and beer sales in grocery and convenience stores.
The system generates 2.1 billion dollars a year, but most of that is used to buy and transport the alcohol and pay for staffing and store building costs.
It also includes more than 400 million dollars in state taxes each year, taxes that would still have to be paid by private store owners.
Last year the system generated nearly 110 million dollars in revenues after expenses; 28 million supported DUI efforts and alcohol education and 80 million dollars were returned to the state's general fund.
A spokesperson for the Governor told us that the plan would recoup those dollars by changing some of the fee structures currently in place.
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