(Listen) 9/3 Today In PhillyLabor Radio Podcast Featuring Pete Matthews, President, AFSCME DC 33 and Bob Wolper of Strategic Communications.
Click Here For Podcast – http://wwdbam.com/2014/09/03/jk090314_mono/
By Joel Mathis
– Here’s the best reason for leaving Pennsylvania’s liquor sales in the hands of the state: Selling booze makes a lot of money for Harrisburg’s bank account.
The agency that controls liquor and wine sales in Pennsylvania has transferred a record $526 million to the state government’s main bank account.
A report issued Wednesday by the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board says the total for the year ending June 30 is $13 million, or 2.5 percent, higher than the previous year’s transfer.
Most of that revenue comes from state liquor and sales taxes, but it also includes profits of $80 million that was transferred early at Gov. Tom Corbett’s request while this year’s state budget plan was being assembled.
In addition to $526 million in contributions to the General Fund, the agency also remitted $8.3 million in local taxes to Philadelphia and Allegheny counties, $25 million to the Pennsylvania State Police, $2.5 million to the Department of Drug and Alcohol Programs and $4.5 million in licensing fees returned to local municipalities.
Some of that money would surely be lost if the system were privatized. That deosn’t mean the system shouldn’t be privatized, but the difficulty of replacing that revenue is the best argument that defenders of the status quo have to make.
Source: http://www.phillymag.com/news/2014/09/03/plcb-pays-state-half-billion-dollars/
Brief PhillyLabor Editorial – If anyone in the Governor’s mansion is listening. Record Receipts Hooray! Please tell us again why we need privatization and to layoff 5000+ PA. workers in the process?
Our Featured Guest on Today In PhillyLabor Radio is Pete Matthews, President, AFSCME DC 33.
Tune in to WWDB 860AM at 6pm Tonight (Listen online at: http://wwdbam.com/streamer/) and See What All The Talk is About!
By Mike DeNardo
– From sheet metal workers to teachers, union members marched along Columbus Boulevard this morning to celebrate Labor Day.
Hundreds of workers, each wearing their union’s colored t-shirts took to the street in an annual display of solidarity.
Ray Guzman, a teacher at Swenson Arts and Technology
High School, says marching alongside laborers and janitors and white collar workers, gives him an appreciation for the rights earned by unions over the years.
“On a day like today, where you get to see people from different work forces, it kind of reminds us that a lot of people worked very hard to guarantee things that we take for granted,” Guzman said.
Including health insurance, sick leave and work rules. For many union leaders, the parade served as a political rally to energize the base for this fall’s governor’s race.
Source: http://philadelphia.cbslocal.com/2014/09/01/union-members-celebrate-labor-day-with-columbus-boulevard-parade/
PhillyLabor.com
