Liquor Store Privatization To Take Center Stage This Week

HARRISBURG, Pa. (CBS) - The push to privatize Pennsylvania liquor sales will be in the spotlight this week when the much-anticipated legislative proposal is expected to be unveiled. But when the legislature returns in the fall, the fate of state stores will share the stage with several other major issues.

Not only will there be other big ticket items in play when the legislature reconvenes in the fall, Erik Arneson – spokesman for Chester Republican Dominic Pileggi, the state Senate majority leader – says most of those issues either involve a deadline or are farther along in the process, "Congressional redistricting – that needs to get done before people start deciding whether they're going to run for Congress next year or not. The Marcellus Shale issue, obviously, has been out there and thoroughly debated for years. School choice was very well ventilated in the spring here."

Transportation funding will likely be in the mix as well. Arneson says it's possible those and others along with liquor privatization will all be resolved by year's end and it's also possible only one or two of them get done. He rates the chance that privatization will be among them as "fair."

Reported by KYW Harrisburg Bureau Chief Tony Romeo