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Pennsylvania State Senate
04/18/2024 05:24 PM
Pennsylvania State Senate
https://www.legis.state.pa.us/cfdocs/Legis/CSM/showMemoPublic.cfm?chamber=S&SPick=20170&cosponId=24616
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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda

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Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2017 - 2018 Regular Session

MEMORANDUM

Posted: September 26, 2017 01:05 PM
From: Senator Anthony H. Williams
To: All Senate members
Subject: Special Liquor Orders and Direct Shipment to PLCB Licensees
 
In the near future, I will be introducing legislation to delay the implementation of the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s (PLCB) Special Liquor Order (SLO) system and to require implementation of a direct-delivery system for PLCB licensees by March 1, 2018.

I was recently alerted by an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Philly's fine wine restaurants alarmed by new PLCB rules, September 19, 2017) of troubling changes to the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board’s Special Liquor Order (SLO) system. Instead of paying for special wine and liquor orders upon satisfactory pick up, restaurant owners must soon pay for products days or even weeks in advance of receiving those bottles. Additionally, the new process will prohibit licensees from inspecting their orders prior to payment, instead requiring buyers to follow a convoluted seven-step process to return damaged or incorrect shipments. Business owners are rightly concerned that the new rules will create cash-flow and inventory issues in restaurants and bars featuring rare or expensive wine and liquor.

The confusion arises from a fiscal code amendment passed in 2016 as part of the annual budget which allows that the PLCB “may implement a procedure for processing special orders which do not come to rest at a store by June 1, 2017.” My legislation would amend the Fiscal Code to change the “may” to a “shall” regarding direct shipment and would further delay implementation of the new SLO process until after the holiday season, to March 1, 2018. This will allow stakeholders to further discuss complications in the process, while creating a process which benefits small business owners throughout the commonwealth.

Please join me in co-sponsoring this important legislation.