If you can do a beer run next year on Super Bowl Sunday, you might want to thank your local school.
Because school districts in Fulton and DeKalb counties decided to ask voters to extend their penny sales taxes, there will be countywide elections in November.
That opens the door for major jurisdictions such as the counties, Atlanta and Sandy Springs – where residents weren't slated to go to the polls – to piggyback a voter question to allow Sunday retail sales of alcohol on the school elections. Whether all of the communities will take that route is an open question, though at least one community already had its answer.
“We weren't going to lay out a penny to hold a special election,” said Sandy Springs Mayor Eva Galambos, of the nearly $100,000 election officials estimated such a vote would cost in her north Fulton city. “But if there’s already going to be an election, we’ll put it on.”
Robb Dillon, the owner of a high-end food market in the city, applauds that change of heart. He sells $2,000 of wine and beer a week at his New York Butcher Shoppe on Roswell Road, $1,500 of the beverages on Fridays and Saturdays.
Dillon thinks he could double those sales if shoppers could also buy alcohol on Sundays, one of his busiest days.
“People are coming in on Sundays with time to cook and are spending money to buy what they want,” Dillon said. “People want a nice dinner and to have a bottle of wine at home for it.”
Such public sentiment was the driving force behind the General Assembly agreeing this year to allow local referendums on the matter. But even with the opportunity, there is still no guarantee that voters will get a chance to decide.
It's up to county commissioners and city council members to vote to put the question on the ballots, and not all of them are as enthusiastic as Galambos.
"Enough is enough," said Fulton Commissioner William "Bill" Edwards. "People who drink on Sundays, they know where to get it. I like to have a beer every now and then, but I get my beer on Saturday."
Atlanta Councilman Michael Bond wants the city take the lead in enacting the law but worries about the strategy of coupling it with a tax question. Mayor Kasim Reed wanted the school system to scale back the tax, since voters will decide on another 1-cent tax next summer to fund transportation improvements. Having both could leave Atlanta with one of the highest sales tax rates in the nation.
"I would hate to give them the audience to be at the trough for four more years," Bond said of the school system. "That's a really tough conundrum."
Larry Johnson, the DeKalb County Commission’s presiding officer, is reluctant to bring up the alcohol issue.
DeKalb is already consumed with trying to plug a $40 million budget gap this summer. Yet even the projected $200,000 in sales tax revenue that Sunday sales could put into county coffers isn’t enough to earn his support.
“It isn't a large enough amount compared to the potential harm,” Johnson said. “We have many liquor stores and restaurants that sell plenty of alcohol.”
In case that changes, though, the DeKalb elections office has put a question before its law department: Who pays for the Sunday sales vote?
The law allowing the referendums requires the cost be “borne by the county or municipality” where the vote is held. Elections Director Maxine Davis said she isn't certain how that would be calculated if DeKalb decides to ask the Sunday sales question.
“We've never had these co-mingled elections before,” said Daniels, adding that countywide elections typically cost between $350,000 and $400,000.
Cost questions also have come up in Atlanta, where the price could reach $1 million. The city would likely have to split that with the schools, according to Elections Chief Dwight Brower.
Nearly 30 metro cities, without looking at costs, have already decided to put the question before voters during their municipal elections in November. No metro county has yet taken a similar vote, though Cherokee County expects to do so if its school system also holds an election, said County Commission Chairman Buzz Ahrens.
County leaders across the region said they hadn't been contacted much by voters one way or another on the matter. Residents said that's because they expect the measure to be put up – and pass – across the region.
“It’ll pass in Sandy Springs,” said Mike Thomas, a shift supervisor at Starbucks who lives in the city. “People here don’t want to have to run out on a Saturday night.”
Many residents, like some elected officials, didn't realize the sales tax question for schools created the opportunity for a vote on being able to buy alcohol in retail stores on Sundays. In DeKalb, some said they will start pushing for a referendum now.
“Why would you not sell a product on your shelf?” asked Laura Stidham, an office manager from Brookhaven. “People want to buy it, and it’s good tax money for government. Let us vote.”
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