House Speaker Glenn Richardson vowed Friday to push legislation to legalize Sunday sales of alcohol in stores.

[post a comment below]

And if Governor Sonny Perdue vetoes the bill, Richardson (R-Hiram) promised to override the governor's action when the Legislature returns in January.

Perdue hasn't explicitly said he'll veto the Sunday alcohol sales bill currently in the House. But he has consistently opposed efforts to expand alcohol sales on moral grounds. On Thursday he said that "six days is plenty" to allow liquor sales in Georgia.

The original version of the bill only allowed Sunday alcohol sales in a new minor league ball park in Gwinnett County, but a House committee amended it to legalize package sales statewide.

During an interview Friday morning, Richardson said, "I find it very critical that on the one hand, the governor says he'll approve Sunday sales at a ball game in Gwinnett County, but won't approve Sunday sales at a convenience store in Paulding County. It would be one thing if you had a moral position that there should be no sales on Sunday, but once you say you're okay with Sunday sales at a Braves game or Sunday sales in limousine, which is what [Perdue] said, I don't know how you have a moral ground.

"It's almost like quicksand ground," Richardson said.

Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley said the governor preferred to "stick to policy" in discussing the issue.

"[Perdue] believes Georgians understand the difference between an economic development project [with] Sunday sales in a specific location for a specific purpose such as the Gwinnett ballpark and opening up statewide across the board [alcohol] sales,"Brantley said.

If the bill passes the House and is vetoed by Perdue, Richardson, said he'd call for an override vote in January.

"The governor does not get the final vote," Richardson said. "The General Assembly does."

Richardson also criticized the governor for his blistering criticism of a bill heavily promoted by the House speaker to wipe out property taxes on cars.

The governor on Thursday compared the repeatedly revised legislation "to the Wright Brothers jumping off at Kitty Hawk and designing the airplane on the way down."

Richardson called that remark "blatantly wrong."

"We've been working on tax reform for several years now, and he has not joined us at the table to try to come up with a solution to give long term tax relief to Georgians, Richardson said.