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Senate Co-Sponsorship Memoranda
Senate of Pennsylvania
Session of 2021 - 2022
Regular Session
MEMORANDUM
| Posted: | June 23, 2021 01:34 PM |
|---|---|
| From: | Senator Mike Regan |
| To: | All Senate members |
| Subject: | PLCB Flexible Pricing Repeal |
| Act 39 of 2016 implemented historic reforms to the Pennsylvania Liquor Code, and among the changes was a measure to provide the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) with what is referred to as flexible pricing. Flexible pricing allows the PLCB to “price its best-selling items and limited purchase items in a manner that maximizes the return on the sale of those items” and to “discount the price of discontinued items.” The PLCB championed flexible pricing as a way for the Board to more effectively negotiate with liquor suppliers and to provide more revenue to the Commonwealth, while also using the leverage that flexible pricing provides to lower the price of some products in state-owned liquor stores. Five years later, and flexible pricing has not resulted in lower prices for the consumer, nor has the Board convincingly shown that it has provided our Commonwealth with increased revenues. Prior to passage of Act 39, the PLCB had to follow a strict pricing formula that required prices to be proportional. Under the proportional pricing formula, the PLCB was required to pass savings onto the consumer anytime suppliers discounted their prices. This offered the consumer a level of protection and guaranteed discount. Since the PLCB is neither constrained by market discipline nor anti-trust laws, this legislation will simply repeal the flexible pricing provision from the Liquor Code in order to reinstitute much needed consumer protections. Please join me as a co-sponsor on this important piece of legislation. |