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DEL.ICIO.USSunday booze battle continues
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
State Senate leaders stalled popular legislation last session to allow beer, wine and spirits sales at stores on Sundays, but that doesn’t mean the fight is over.
The Distilled Spirits Council launched the first salvo of the 2008 Sunday booze battle Tuesday, sending our colleague James Salzer a release arguing that Georgia’s “outdated Blue Law” will hurt their businesses on two of the busiest shopping days of the year.
“It seems like the only people who benefit from Georgia’s prohibition-era laws are retailers from outside the state,” said Michael Greenbaum, owner of Tower Package Store in Atlanta. “As a businessman, I’m disappointed that in the state of Georgia, I’m forced by a 1930’s law to shut my doors for two full days during the busiest shopping season of the year.”
Some liquor-store owners who didn’t want the expense of being open on Sundays or the competition from grocery stores helped convince the Senate to kill the measure last session.
But the Distilled Spirits crowd said the trend is toward legalizing Sunday sales. Since 2002, it said, 12 states have passed legislation allowing Sunday spirits sales.
“It’s unfortunate that Georgia consumers are still inconvenienced by a law so outdated,” said Council Vice President Jay Hibbard, whose organization has supported rolling back Sunday sales bans in states across the country.
“Archaic Blue Laws hinder consumers’ ability to purchase spirits for their holiday parties, deny businesses the holiday sales rush and deprive state coffers from additional sales tax revenue that would be gained from Sunday Sales.”
This year the sales will be banned two days before Christmas and two days before New Year’s Day, Dec. 23 and Dec. 30. Both are major shopping days.
Council officials say that year-round Sunday sales of distilled spirits in Georgia would lead to estimated sales of $29.1million to $40.7 million and between $3.4 million and $4.8 million in additional state sales tax revenue.
Comments
By BillW
December 18, 2007 11:05 PM | Link to this
“Council officials say that year-round Sunday sales of distilled spirits in Georgia would lead to estimated sales of $29.1million to $40.7 million and between $3.4 million and $4.8 million in additional state sales tax revenue.”
…more than offset by additional traffic injuries and fatalities, property damage, and lost work hours.