Fight over canned drinks endangers restaurant bill

• However, their hopes are now wrapped up in a controversial bid to expand sales of canned cocktails, a roughly $5.5 billion market globally that could reach $13.4 billion by 2028.
• State senators added the canned-cocktail expansion to legislation that would ease the way for restaurants and bars to set up outdoor seating and sell mixed drinks to go.
• The new provisions have drawn a veto threat from Gov. Tom Wolf. They would allow sales of canned cocktails like margaritas and whiskey sours at beer distributors, grocery stores and convenience stores, among others, building on five-year-old changes to state liquor laws.

• "One of the biggest changes will be the end of bars and restaurants selling to-go mixed drinks," Barley Snyder attorney Larry Heim wrote in a note. "This practice was prohibited pre-pandemic by the state’s alcohol regulations, but state legislators offered it as a life preserver to restaurants that could no longer have customers eat or drink in their establishments."
• If they want to continue expanded outdoor seating, restaurants and bars will have to apply for permanent approval.

• Nonetheless, the industry would like to preserve the practices that helped it generate revenue at a time when pandemic restrictions cut into most other sources.

• Wolf has said he would sign a limited bill covering outdoor seating and cocktails to go for bars and restaurants.
• But he has warned he would reject a bill ushering in broader changes to laws governing alcohol sales.
• Chuck Moran, executive director of the Pennsylvania Licensed Beverage and Tavern Association in Harrisburg, would like to see the two issues separated. But, he said, "We know that there's going to be a lot of lobbying around this."
• The canned-cocktail changes are supported by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, a trade group for the distilled spirits industry, which advocated for them in legislative testimony earlier this year.

• The pandemic-era flexibility is in place until Sept. 30 under a bill signed by Wolf earlier this month.
• The bill applies to flexibility granted by the governor, however, not the liquor control board, according to a spokesperson for the PLCB.

Quick takes

• McNamara will manage the finance department of the two companies that comprise the Gooding Group: GSM Roofing, which specializes in commercial installation and maintenance, and GSM Industrial, a contract manufacturer. They employ about 220 people overall.
• McNamara worked most recently as controller and principal accounting officer for Armstrong World Industries, the ceiling manufacturer based in Manor Township, Lancaster County.

• Meyers, who founded JEM Group in 2003, is on the board of The Salvation Army Harrisburg Capital City Region, the YWCA of Greater Harrisburg and AAA Central PA. She also is co-chair of Top Taste, an annual fundraiser for the Central Pennsylvania Food Bank.
• Centric Financial, the parent of Centric Bank, has assets of $1.1 billion and has been expanding recently into the Philadelphia suburbs.

• Jobs in education, health care, hospitality and service industries all grew by double digits. Service industries led the pack with a 23.4% gain, followed by education and health services at 12.2%, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry. 
• Construction and manufacturing saw slight declines, of 3.3% and 1.6%, respectively.