In the News
Critics: Pennsylvania liquor board’s variable pricing is illegal tax
“When a business gives you a markup, it’s not a tax, right? It’s just a service that you can go then to a competitor store if you don’t like their markups,” said Jarret Dieterle, a senior fellow and alcohol policy expert at the R Street Institute, a nonpartisan, public policy think tank based in Washington. “You can’t do that in Pennsylvania, of course. You’re beholden to them.”
No other business sector features government-run retail outlets, Dieterle said.
Dieterle called Topper’s bill a step forward, although he’d prefer for the legislature itself to have a direct say in the markup process.
