ABC27 WHTM Liquor board approves price hikes on 300 products

Liquor board approves price hikes on 300 products

Get ready to dig deeper to pay for that favorite bottle of wine or alcohol. Prices on hundreds of products at Pennsylvania's wine and spirits stores are going up.

The Liquor Control Board on Wednesday voted unanimously to approve higher prices requested by the suppliers of more than 300 of the 30,000 products offered through the state store system.

PLCB Chairman Patrick "PJ" Stapleton said the suppliers could have pulled their products without the increase.

"The choice is - do we raise the price of Smirnoff and let the consumers decide or do we say there's no more Smirnoff?" Stapleton said.

Jacquin's rum, for example, will go up $0.50 a bottle. Barefoot chardonnay will increase by $1, and Jameson Irish Whiskey will cost $5 more.

The price increases will take effect in February and March.

"It's further evidence that Pennsylvania ought to join the other 48 state and realize this can be done better in the private sector rather than the government sector," said Matthew Brouillette, president and CEO of the Commonwealth Foundation. "Pennsylvania consumers lose when the government is in the booze business. When they are picking wine winners and liquor losers, it's ultimately taxpayers that pay."

The PLCB countered that they denied price hikes for 18 months while the costs of everything else went up. Now that they've approved some increases, other suppliers are likely to put in their requests during the next few months.