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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. Robert Donatucci |
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Donatucci sets House/Senate hearing into 'beer raids'
HARRISBURG, March 10 – State Rep. Robert Donatucci, D-Phila., chairman of the House Liquor Control Committee, today announced that the panel and its Senate counterpart will hold a joint hearing in April into the raids conducted by the Pennsylvania State Police Bureau of Liquor Code Enforcement this weekend and Monday in Philadelphia on three bars and one distributor allegedly selling "unregistered" beer brands.
A beer is considered unregistered if the producer has not officially registered it with the Liquor Control Board as being distributed in the Commonwealth and paid the designated tax.
The beers involved in the raids were from small-scale producers. Even though the producers are ultimately responsible for the registration, current law requires Liquor Code Enforcement officers to confiscate unregistered brands.
Donatucci noted that the bureau officers acted on a specific complaint they had received and did not pull the idea for the raids "out of the air." Subsequently, the LCB is looking into the possibility that some of the affected brands were registered, but that the registration may not have been properly communicated to the Bureau of Liquor Code Enforcement.
"These incidents have brought to light that the state Liquor Code appears to have some antiquated provisions and required procedures," said Donatucci. "And the beer registration provisions could lead that list.
"While the registration requirement appears justified, we need to examine the registration process and enforcement, especially when it comes to having responsibly operating licensed establishments held to account for the producer's mistake or an error in Liquor Control Board communications."
Donatucci said the hearing, to be held at 10 a.m. April 13 in the Majority Caucus Room, will examine the causes behind the beer registration raid and how the registration provisions and other aspects of Liquor Code enforcement may be outdated and how to remedy them.
"By all indications the officers acted in accordance with the law and established procedure," Donatucci added," but having a small amount of a designer beverage that may not meet a technicality required of the producer should not constitute grounds for a full-fledged raid as if they were black-marketing truckloads of illegal moonshine.
"If nothing else, however, these incidents have alerted us to the need to look closely at our Liquor Code and enforcement procedures to ensure that all aspects meet practical and effective standards."