House Speaker Mike Turzai, R-Allegheny, praised the liquor modernization bill signed by Gov. Tom Wolf, but also called it “an incremental step.”
The law, introduced as HB 1690, will allow, among other changes, direct shipments of wine to consumers—bypassing the Liquor Control Board (LCB)—but leaves the state store system in tact. The direct-wine shipments and limited-wine sales at groceries will erode some of the LCB’s power, but spirits remain entirely under state control. Turzai’s original version of HB 1690 would have ended the state store monopoly, but Senate amendments removed that language.
