80 years later, Pennsylvania finally accepts that Prohibition ended

After seven hours of debate, the Pennsylvania House voted 105-90 to privatize the sale of wine and liquor, according to The Inquirer. The bill calls for gradually selling off licenses to private entrepreneurs, starting with beer distributors, and eventually closing over 600 state stores.

"Today, the House of Representatives made history," declared Gov. Corbett. "Never before has a liquor-privatization bill passed either chamber of the legislature."

The bill that passed the GOP-controlled House is a less bold version of the plan Corbett initially proposed, gradually selling off licenses to the private sector before allowing supermarkets and big-box stores to enter the liquor market.

Democrats opposed the bill, both morally and fiscally. They warned that increased access would lead to increased drinking and the "social ills" that come with it, including drunk driving and domestic violence.

They said privatization would cost 3,500 unionized state store clerks their jobs. They also argued that the state would lose out on $170 million annually if the Liquor Control Board is privatized and those profits stay with private companies.

Utah is the only other state with a government that runs both the wholesale and retail liquor operations. Pennsylvania's monopoly on alcohol import and wine and spirits sales has been in place since Prohibition, which officially ended in 1933 with the passage of the 21st amendment.

"God forbid an individual in Pennsylvania be allowed to walk into a store and buy beer, wine, and liquor. The Earth would come to a halt if we allowed that to happen. Can you imagine we would give that kind of freedom of choice?" said GOP Rep. Warren Kampf. "I support this legislation because I think it starts treating Pennsylvanians like the adults that they are."

The bill will now move to Pennsylvania's Republican-controlled Senate. "I don't think anyone expects the Senate to simply take up the House bill and move it to the governor's desk as is," Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi told reporters Thursday.