Archive for October, 2009
Selling Pennsylvania’s liquor monopoly could soften budget deficits
By Jacqueline G. Goodwin, Ed.D.
Should Pennsylvania sell the state liquor control system to balance the budget?No one understands the pretzel logic in Pennsylvania’s liquor-law rule book, which went through another legal contortion this month.
The state Supreme Court decreed that a convenience store owner in Altoona may not sell six-packs to go, because he balked at the part of a state law that says customers must be able to drink at least part of their purchase inside the store.
That’s typical of the rulings emanating from a state-run system that seeks to increase customer convenience while making sure some of the powerful interests in the alcohol business — unionized liquor store clerks and beer distributors among them — don’t lose too much of their market protection. Read the rest of this entry »
Oh Where, Oh Where is the Technology Spend
By Deena C Malley
The state budget process is not for the faint of heart, but it takes a real warrior to dissect where the state is spending money on information technology. There are thousands of large and small tech projects being funded all over state government and are hidden throughout the state budget. Finding them can be more challenging than running through a Lancaster County corn maze. Read the rest of this entry »