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weeklypress.comucreview.com •april 3, 2013 3


OF COMMUNITY NEWS years


Dear Claudia:


On behalf of the Philadel- phia Federal Credit Union, we offer our congratulations as you prepare to celebrate the 25th


Anniversary of the


University City Review and Weekly Press newspapers. Sincerely, Karen Eavis PFCU


Political updates on the State & Local Level


The UC Review and Weekly Press compile political news that affects voters each week on the city and state level to keep readers more abreast of local politics. If there’s an is- sue you would like included in this column, please email it to newsdesk@pressreview. net by the Monday, noontime deadline!


F


ormer Senator Harris Wofford (D) and Con-


gressmen William Clinger (R), Jim Coyne (R), Philip English (R) and Bill Gray (D) announced their partici- pation in the Congressional Fiscal Leadership Council (CFLC). The CFLC - a branch of the nonpartisan Campaign to Fix the Debt - is made up of more than 100 former members of the U.S. Senate and House of


Representatives who are dedicated to urging the cur- rent Congress to find a com- prehensive solution to solve our nation’s debt problems. “Every day, folks across the state are becoming more aware of the toxic battle that is brewing in Washing- ton over our nation’s debt troubles,” said Thom Rip- pon, President of Rippon Associates and co-chair of the Pennsylvania chapter of Fix the Debt. “Frankly, they are sick and tired of parti- sanship and gridlock.” So far, more than 100 former Senators and Repre- sentatives, representing 40 states, have come together to form the CFLC. As am- bassadors for a bipartisan plan, the group’s members will speak with elected of- ficials, business and com- munity leaders and private citizens to educate them on the importance of a com- prehensive deal that reins in spending, raises revenue and reforms our entitlement programs. More than 13,711 Penn- sylvanians have signed the Campaign’s Citizen’s Petition, calling on law- makers in Washington to get to work on a debt deal. Through grassroots organiz- ing, earned media activities and high-profile outreach in 23 state chapters, the Cam- paign to Fix the Debt is urg- ing lawmakers to set aside political differences to for- mulate practical solutions to our nation’s debt problems. City Controller Alan But- kovitz recently released his latest monthly economic re- port that indicated Philadel- phia’s employment count for February totaled 661,000 jobs, which is an increase of 2,600 over the last year. The


Education and Health Ser- vices industry realized the largest year-over-year gain with 2,500 jobs. This indus- try accounts for 219,400 jobs in Philadelphia. The latest monthly job count showed more than 24,300 job openings were advertised online in Phila- delphia, which is second to Allegheny County for most job openings. Most of these openings were adver- tised for positions in healthcare, education, professional and technical services and retail trade. Along with reviewing local job statistics, the Con- troller’s economic report indicates that Wage, Earnings and Net Profit taxes for the year have totaled $1.1 billion, marking a four percent in- crease over last year. Yearly sales tax collections have totaled approximately $173 million, an three percent increase over the previous year. To view the February 2013 Economic Report, please visit the City Controller’s Web site at www.philadelphiacon- troller.org


Pennsylvania State Rep- resentative Brian Sims recently applauded Senator Bob Casey for coming out in support of same-sex mar- riage. Rep. Sims had just last week penned an open letter to the Senator urging him to stand up and voice his support for LGBT equal- ity.


“Senator Casey is a thoughtful and contempla- tive man who today not only listened to the millions of voices of Pennsylvanians calling for him to support same-sex marriage, but strongly voiced that support as well,” Rep. Sims said. “I am pleased to see Senator Casey responding to the voices of his constituents and am eager to work with him in reaching out to the hundreds of thousands of LGBT Pennsylvanians who can now count on his sup- port for LGBT equality.” Along with Rep. Sims, a


chorus of hundreds of thou- sands of Pennsylvanians flooded Senator Casey’s of- fices with letters and phone calls asking him to support same-sex marriage in efforts led by Equality Pennsylva- nia, Keystone Progress, and Moveon.org.


OPINION


LCB: Stagnation Or Change? Thom Nickels


Contributing Writer O


n March 22, the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives voted to end the legacy of Prohibition in the Keystone State. The House voted to privatize wine and liquor sales, a positive move that promises to move the state into the 21st


Century.


Lightning did not strike the state capitol when this happened, although it might as well have because now we are seeing State store liquor clerks defending the state store system despite the fact that the vast majority of Pennsylvanians want privatization. On a human level, one can understand why the state store clerks are rising up in protest: they want to save their jobs, an understandable albeit selfish sentiment that pretty much ignores the wishes of the majority: to get the state out of the business of selling alcohol. Unfortunately, the longer the state is involved in the sale of alcohol, the harder it will be


to uproot that alliance. We are seeing the first effects of that rupture now. The fact that every Democrat in the House voted against privatization is a curious thing indeed. Think about it: Democrats voting with the status quo, to retain an antiquated sys- tem with roots going back to the days of bathtub gin? Aren’t Democrats supposed to side with the will of the people? Privatization, generally, is not a good thing. Privatization ruined the airline industry, it


threatens to destroy the US Post Office (and replace it with expensive Fed Ex style deliver- ies) and it is always ready to pounce on Social Security. Yet privatization in this case is a good thing, and the Pennsylvania Democrats who voted against the measure stooped to a new low when they stated that it (privatization) was “as bad morally as it was fiscally,” and that “increased access to drinking would lead to increased drinking and the social ills that come with it.” What? As a registered Democrat, I don’t believe I’ve ever heard a Democrat say that something could be “bad morally.” The “bad morally” phrase is usually reversed for right of center Republicans on any number of social issues. Democrats, at least in the abstract, are sup- posed to be moral relativists, so this “moral” thing is peculiar indeed. Murdering your neighbor or trashing his car might be “bad morally,” but how is a


greater access to a bottle of wine for a dinner party, “bad morally?” This is what those Democrats are saying: If wine and spirits are sold everywhere, the average person will fall prey to temptation and desire to overindulge. This is a Prohibition mindset that the state has been fostering since the state store system began. But civilization will not fall if a bottle of Merlot is sold next to the Tastykakes in the local grocery store. I’m sorry—no, I’m not—but responsible citizens should not be held hostage because


there are undisciplined folks who do fall prey to sloppy overindulgence (temptation). I would have had more respect for the Democrats who voted against privatization if they had said that they were concerned about the loss of union jobs or the loss of PLCB annual profits totaling some 170 million which go into state coffers. Instead they blabbered on about “social ills.”


I don’t know about you, but when I hear the term “social ills” I think of mass murders in movie theaters, shootings in Old City, or even a random baby stroller murder on a sunny afternoon. What has Fish Eye wine for sale in the grocery stores have to do with an illness? The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has done a lot to adapt to the modern age, such as initializing Sunday sales and regular wine tasting events in random stores. A few years ago there was a master plan in the works to put wine vending machines (kiosks) in up to 100 supermarkets. (Obviously, this project failed). The kiosks were supposed to hold a number of popular wines chosen by the LCB while the machines would have filtered out purchases by minors and the intoxicated. While the “how to science” of these filters was never made clear, the proposed prototype was supposed to get a test run in Harrisburg. Years ago, Governor Rendell (swayed by unions) postponed and then nixed the pilot


program. For anyone who has traveled to New York, California and to the south—where wine can


be purchased in local supermarkets---Pennsylvania’s LCB system seems like an H.G. Wells trip into medieval times. Walk the streets of Manhattan, and you’ll find it hard to count the number of shops that sell wine. Or travel to Canada where you will see wine for sale be- side candy bars and pound cake in neighborhood drug stores. Decades ago when you walked into a Philadelphia state store you had to ask a guy behind the counter what you wanted. They had state store catalogs with numbers; the cus- tomer would give the guy a number, he’d disappear into the back and come back with the bottle. The operation was run like a pawn shop. Not only that, but by law the guy behind the counter couldn’t give you any recommendations. In 2003, I interviewed then Director of Communications for the LCB, Bill Epstein, about the possibility of change for Pennsylvania. At that time, Epstein told me: “If you look at the political horizon as I understand it, it is hard to paint a picture for any major change in the LCB anytime soon.” This despite the fact that in 2003, a Hershey Philbin Associates Online Poll revealed that 75% of Pennsylvanians said they favored abolishing the LCB. The poll numbers since then have favored privatization even more, although politi- cians—in this case, Democrats—never seem to listen to their constituents. So don’t expect any miracles when the privatization bill comes up before the PA Sen- ate. While Pennsylvanians want privatization, politicians have SHS (Selective Hearing Syn- drome). As Epstein told me then, “I have people marching in front of my building and our stores who say that we should not be open on Sunday, that we should not allow credit card sales, or go into supermarkets. These self appointed guardians of moral standards are re- ally prohibitionists.” “There is a coalition of conservatives who don’t believe that availability to alcohol ought to be expanded. There’s also a group of legislators who want to protect jobs at state stores, and these two forces combine to be a potent political road block to modernizing the sys- tem,” Chuck Ardo, Press Secretary for Governor Rendell, told me back in 2009. Face it, folks: Pennsylvania may never change.


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