When state lawmakers return from spring break, they will have three days left to legalize Sunday package sales of beer, wine and liquor.
"We're being cautiously optimistic," Kroger Atlanta division spokesman Glynn Jenkins said about the bill, which would allow localities to decide whether to permit the Sunday sales of alcohol.
If the bill passes, don't expect the beer aisle lights to glow on Sunday any time soon.
The battle will wage on, moving from the Capitol to city halls, commission chambers, church sanctuaries and polling precincts across the state. Local leaders would be left with sticky decisions on whether, and when, to hold referendums. Voters would weigh whether cashiers should be ringing up Budweiser, Barefoot and Bacardi after church lets out.
In metro Atlanta, those aisle lights are more likely to flicker on in spurts, with long periods of confusion where some stores would offer Sunday sales, but, across invisible jurisdictional lines, others could not.
No city or county could have the law enacted before November. Some wouldn't have it in time for football season. Others might wait until President Barack Obama wins or loses a second term.
"It's going to be messy," said Katherine Willoughby, a public management and policy professor at Georgia State University. "It's just not going to be a smooth transition."
Expecting little resistance, supporters hoped to see Senate Bill 10 pass last week, but the Legislature cut out a day early Thursday, leaving it with the House Rules Committee. The bill needs a day to get to the floor, and if there's no vote by the close of session April 14, it will roll to 2012.
If the House approves and Gov. Nathan Deal signs, as he has pledged to do, the bill will become law July 1.
The next step would be for some city council member, county commissioner of government official to put a call for a referendum on a meeting agenda. Then a majority of the board would have to vote for it, giving elections offices ample time to run legal ads, hire poll workers and assemble ballots.
Under state election law, questions can only be put to voters on certain dates. The next chance will be Nov. 8, and this being an odd-numbered year, not everyone has elections scheduled that day. Among them: Atlanta, Marietta, Sandy Springs, Cobb County and Fulton County.
Among those opening polls: every other city in Cobb, every other city in Fulton, all cities in DeKalb County and Lawerenceville, Lilburn, Norcross, Snellville and Suwanee.
DeKalb and Gwinnett counties aren't planning votes for their unincorporated areas, but that could change if school boards call for referendums to extend penny sales taxes. DeKalb, Fulton, Atlanta and Decatur have to hold school SPLOST votes together, covering Sandy Springs.
Without some scheduled election to tack the question to, officials facing budget shortfalls will be reluctant to charge taxpayers to vote on alcohol alone.
"No. Absolutely not," Cobb County Commission Chairman Tim Lee said of having a November vote, which would cost about $350,000.
Cobb is grappling with a $31 million budget gap. Given the flak commissioners took for holding a special-purpose sales tax vote in March, Lee said he would rather wait until the November 2012 presidential election, with maximum turnout, to hold a Sunday sales referendum.
Beer, wine and liquor are available at stores six days a week, Lee said, and since poured drinks are already legal on Sundays, he doesn't believe the county will see a spike in tax revenue from a seventh day of store sales. Nor does he foresee a significant dip if people trek outside the county for alcohol and stock up on groceries while they're at it.
"I think this entire issue is only one of convenience," he said.
Last weekend, Dellareesa Williams reached over a sign apologizing for the Sunday ban, grabbed an $11 bottle of Syrah and put it in her cart at the Sandy Springs Trader Joe's.
It wasn't long before an employee intercepted her and her mother, Georgia Williams, near the register, reminding them what day it was. They drove up from south Fulton, outside Fairburn, for that bottle.
"If you can buy it at restaurants, why can't you buy it in the stores?" Georgia Williams said. "It's just crazy."
Newly elected Sandy Springs Councilman Gabriel Sterling said he is willing to put a referendum on the agenda, but before suggesting November, he needs data on how much revenue Sunday sales would generate. A stand-alone election would cost $96,000, but Sterling said the city could probably cut the price in half by using a private company rather than Fulton County's Department of Registration and Elections.
If the city waited past November, the next chance is the Feb. 7 presidential preference primary. That could change under pending legislation allowing the secretary of state to set the primary date. Officials would also have to consider whether they want the conservative Republican set deciding the Sunday alcohol issue, since that's who will be turning out that day to pick a 2012 opponent for Obama.
Georgia Christian Coalition President Jerry Luquire said he doubts party affiliation or religious beliefs will have much impact on vote results here. He said he will move his campaign from the Capitol to city and unincorporated battlegrounds if SB 10 passes. But given what opinion polls have shown, he will cede metro Atlanta.
A statewide InsiderAdvantage poll found metro Atlanta favored Sunday sales, 66 percent to 23 percent. In a poll by the Schapiro Group, 73 percent of metro Atlantans said they would definitely or probably vote for it, as opposed to 51 percent in the rest of the state.
"I hate to say that we've given up, but yes," Luquire said. "Faith always looks ahead, and looking ahead, I don't see any opposition to it in most of the metropolitan areas."
Among them will be Roswell Street Baptist Church, whose pastor, the Rev. Ernest Easley, said he will ask Cobb and Marietta elected officials to keep Sunday sales off the ballot. If a referendum is scheduled, he said, he will spread the message to his 9,000 members to vote it down and to tell their friends and families to do the same.
"I think it makes a statement," Easley said. "On the Lord's day, which most people don't acknowledge, it's a day of worship, a day to turn off the spigot."
Many city and county officials said they haven't begun considering how to handle the issue. Newly elected Gwinnett County Commission Chairwoman Charlotte Nash said she hasn’t given it much thought. Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed is too swamped with the pension crisis, the school system crisis and the 2012 budget, spokeswoman Sonji Dade said.
Austell Mayor Joe Jerkins said he would go along with letting the people decide this November, during city elections, but as a former liquor store owner who thinks six days is enough, he won't be the one to bring it forward on an agenda.
Snellville Mayor Jerry Oberholtzer sees it differently. He's hoping his city, which approved Sunday sales at restaurants by a 2-1 margin last year, can beat Gwinnett County to the punch this November.
“If we don’t pass it and the county passes it, then we could end up losing our grocery stores,” Oberholtzer said.
Staff writer David Wickert contributed to this article.
What's next
Senate Bill 10 has three days left to pass in the House -- April 12-14. If it does, Gov. Nathan Deal has said he will sign it, and the bill would become law July 1. But to have actual Sunday alcohol sales in stores, local jurisdictions would have to hold their own referendums and approve.
Close to home
In each city and county, a council member, commissioner or other official would have to put a call for a referendum on a meeting agenda, including the date Sunday sales would go into effect, and a majority of the board would have to agree. If more than 50 percent of voters approve, package sales of beer, wine and liquor become legal from 12:30 to 11:30 p.m. on Sundays.
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The possible referendum dates
Here are the scheduled elections that the Sunday sales question could be put before voters:
Nov. 8 -- General election
Feb. 7 -- Presidential preference primary (Under pending legislation, this primary could be pushed back as late as June 12.)
Aug. 21, 2012 -- General primaries (Under pending legislation, these primaries could be moved to July 31.)
Nov. 6, 2012 -- General election, headlined by the presidential race
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What it would cost
Local governments could opt to speed up the decision making on Sunday alcohol sales and put the decision before voters before the next scheduled election. Here are the estimated costs to taxpayers for holding an alcohol vote independent of the next scheduled election:
- Atlanta: $600,000*
- Cobb County: $350,000
- DeKalb County: $250,000*
- Fulton County: $1.4 million*
- Gwinnett County: $600,000-$700,000*
- Marietta: $40,000
- Sandy Springs: $96,000*
* In these jurisdictions, the cost would be absorbed if officials choose to hold November referendums on extending their school systems' penny sales taxes, in which case alcohol sales could be tacked onto the same ballot.
Note: If Cobb or Fulton held countywide elections, cities therein could piggyback and put municipal elections on the same ballot for minimal costs. The above figures, estimates based on past costs, were provided to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution by the respective counties' elections office directors.
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