Sunday alcohol sales issue
stirs debate at Capitol
By Travis Fain | TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER
ATLANTA - The issue of Sunday alcohol sales stirred more passionate debate Wednesday, and legislation on the issue could take a crucial step as soon as next week.
A state Senate committee meeting on the matter broke without a vote Wednesday following two hours of debate on the issue. The meeting also ended with the committee chairman and the bill's sponsor at odds over whether more work was needed before that vote.
David Shafer, chairman of the Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee, assigned a subcommittee to work with Sen. Seth Harp, R-Columbus, on the bill, which has already been through a series of drafts.
Harp called the move a delay tactic. But Shafer, R-Duluth, promised to hold a committee vote on the issue, likely during next week's meeting. That's a key step to get the matter before the full Georgia Senate and, eventually, the House of Representatives and Gov. Sonny Perdue.
"This bill will be voted on by the full committee in time (for the Senate to act on it this year)," Shafer said.
If not, Harp said, "there's more than one way to get to the floor. ... I've been around here a while."
Wednesday's committee hearing pitted grocers against preachers, who dueled over contrary statistics and competing moralities.
Sunday sales are needed because they will level the playing field between stores and restaurants that can already sell alcoholic beverages on Sundays, executives from various grocery chains said. Sunday sales will produce new sales and excise tax revenue for the state, they said, and will give people the freedom to choose whether or not they want to buy alcohol on Sunday.
Preachers kept coming back to one central point: If you do this, they told legislators, people will die. And voters will remember.
The legislation, which has morphed from Senate Bill 26, to Senate Bills 137 and 138, would allow city and county governments to call for referendums to allow Sunday sales of alcoholic beverages to go. That's illegal statewide now, though restaurants in some counties are allowed to sell drinks on their premises.
One version of Harp's legislation would include liquor, another would not. The final language may change between now and a vote.
Grocers took a pragmatic approach to the legislation Wednesday, saying Sunday has become the biggest shopping day of the week and that stores near Georgia's borders are losing business to Alabama, Florida and other states that offer Sunday sales.
Georgia is one of only three states in the United States that doesn't offer Sunday sales, they said. Preachers who addressed the committee said they're glad for that.
More time to sell alcohol will lead to more drunk driving accidents, they said. Preachers produced statistics saying drunk driving rates go up in states with Sunday sales, but a representative from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States presented statistics showing no change when Sunday sales are introduced.
As the meeting drew on, tempers flared.
"If you pass this bill ... and just one person is harmed ... their blood will be on your hands," Aaron McCollough, speaking on behalf of the Georgia Baptist Convention, told legislators.
