Future businesses looking to sell alcohol in Somerset and Cambria counties could face a new hurdle in getting necessary liquor licenses.
Every year, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board auctions off any unused liquor licenses to the highest bidder, but those licenses are required to stay within the county.
This year that’s changing and officials we spoke with explained why those changes could hurt a business down the line.
Shawn Kelly, of the PLCB, says that when the Liquor Control Board was created in the 1930’s, there were no limits, so booming places like Philadelphia and Pittsburgh racked up a lot of liquor licenses.
He explained that each county’s limit is now based on population and if an unused license does not receive the minimum bid of twenty five thousand dollars, it remains dormant until the next auction.
Smaller places often have unused licenses sitting year after year, thus, the law was changed in 2025 to allow for statewide, so called “excess” auctions.
Ten counties across the Commonwealth have licenses up for bids in Harrisburg on June 17th. That auction includes Cambria and Somerset counties.
But now that liquor licenses can be transferred across county lines, the Cambria County Chamber of Commerce has reason for concern as the organization’s president says losing liquor licenses would not be good for our area.
“First Summit Bank has moved downtown; Therapeutic Associates has moved downtown. So, there’s actually more people in downtown, more people are going to be in downtown. I would think that the restaurants are going to be busy and hopefully there will even be some additional ones at some point in the future,”
The PLCB says that while more rural areas of the state sometimes struggle to get the minimum bid, liquor licenses in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh often go for hundreds of thousands of dollars.