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ATLANTA — An effort to allow Georgia stores to sell alcohol on Sundays is joining forces with a push to crack down on underage drinking.

Backers of Sunday sales said Thursday that linking the two issues will make the Sunday sales bill more appealing to some conservative lawmakers wary of a backlash from family values groups.

Christian conservatives have fought the bill for the past  two years, warning it would sully the Sabbath and lead to more alcohol-related deaths on state highways.

The bill is expected to begin moving in committee next week. Supporters insist it has fresh momentum this year. They are stressing that the state’s struggling economy could use the additional revenue Sunday alcohol sales would bring.

And Lt. Gov. Casey Cagle — criticized in the past for keeping the bill bottled up in the state Senate — has said he won’t stand in the way of a vote this year.

Georgia is one of only three states in the nation that don’t allow stores to sell any kind of alcohol on Sunday. The other two are Connecticut and Indiana.

The bill, sponsored by state Sen. Seth Harp, R-Midland, would give local governments the option on whether to permit Sunday alcohol sales. Voters in those areas would then have to approve the change at the ballot box.

Harp said he wants to merge his bill with portions of legislation from state Sen. Dan Moody, an Alpharetta Republican, that would hand down stiff penalties to those who sell alcohol to minors.

“The way I see it, we would be rewarding these stores who can sell on Sundays by allowing them to earn additional revenue,” Moody said Thursday.

“So, with that reward would come more responsibility.”

Under Moody’s proposal, those convicted of selling to minors would automatically lose their liquor license for two years. Right now, that penalty is optional.

A remaining obstacle is  Gov. Sonny Perdue, a teetotaler and Christian conservative, who has said repeatedly that he opposes Sunday sales. It’s unknown what Perdue would do if the bill passed .

Grocery and convenience stores have been pushing for the change, saying their customers are clamoring for it.

There was no precise figure on how much additional sales tax revenue Sunday sales would bring in, because it would depend on which communities opt in.

But a spokesman for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States said that allowing liquor sales statewide would bring up to $4.8 million in increased taxes.

An official with Publix, one of Georgia’s largest supermarket chains, said the sale of beer and wine at grocery stores on Sunday would result in $1.4 million in extra excise taxes and at least $3.3 million in new sales tax revenue.

Cagle has said he will allow a vote on Sunday sales this session, but doubts it will funnel much additional cash into state coffers.

“I don’t see that as a real revenue enhancement,” he said.