Dear Senator:
Malt and brewed beverages in Pennsylvania are sold by thousands of private enterprise businesses in an existing marketplace. The current system includes thousands of retailers, over a hundred wholesalers, and hundreds of manufacturers—all owned and supported by private investment and dedicated non-public employees.
We represent everything from sole proprietors to multinational companies as well as nonprofits. Thousands of entities that employ tens of thousands of individuals throughout the Commonwealth.
Any changes to how beer, wine, and/or spirits are marketed or sold will impact our entities and will pick winners and losers. We urge you not to create unintended, adverse impacts on existing Pennsylvania businesses, non-profits, and employees by rushing through a Liquor Code bill that has not been properly vetted as a complete document so that the many existing businesses that will be impacted by it will have a chance to carefully evaluate it and then comment on it. The fact that components of it might have been discussed in the past is very different than a careful consideration of how all of the concepts in any proposal will interact.
We respectfully request that with the enactment of a budget anticipated in the near future; any change to the Liquor Code not be considered by the General Assembly until some future date when full consideration to the impact of proposed changes to existing entities can be considered carefully.