The
bill to allow package sales of alcohol on Sundays was revived Wednesday
when it was attached to Senate legislation allowing Sunday beer sales
at Gwinnett County's new baseball stadium.
The amended bill passed the House Regulated Industries Committee
unanimously over opposition from preachers, who told lawmakers that
more alcohol would mean more social problems.
"Will our society, will our communities be healthier and safer if we
make more alcohol available? That's the bottom line," Hartwell Baptist
preacher Mike Griffin told the committee. "This body should be working
on more restrictions on alcohol. The last thing we need is more."
Tom Rush, pastor of First Baptist Church in Social Circle, said, "If we sell more alcohol, more people are going to die."
However, officials from grocery stores and convenience stores told
committee members that their customers want to be able to buy beer and
wine on Sundays. They said Georgia is one of only three states —-
Indiana and Connecticut are the others —- that have a total ban on
Sunday sales.
Horace Hamilton, an executive with Kroger, said Sunday is the second-busiest shopping day of the week.
"At the front of the store on Sundays, you will find wine and beer
that had been brought to the register by customers who were hoping to
complete all of their shopping," Hamilton told the committee. "This
issue is about free enterprise and fairness."
Georgia Chamber of Commerce officials at the meeting handed out a
letter expressing the group's support for the Sunday sales bill.
Under the revised measure, officials in local communities that
already allow the sale of alcoholic beverages would be able to call for
a referendum to decide if Sunday package sales should be allowed.
House leadership now will decide whether to put the measure on the
calendar for a vote. Senate leaders have stalled legislation on Sunday
store sales for more than a year. It did not get a hearing in the
Senate this session, but House Regulated Industries Chairman Roger
Williams (R-Dalton) indicated two weeks ago he planned to add it to the
Gwinnett stadium measure.
"I would not want to deny people of this state the right to vote on something they feel strongly about, either way," he said.
Williams said it would not be fair to allow Sunday sales at the
Gwinnett ballpark and not allow sales at grocery and convenience
stores. Restaurants and bars already can sell alcoholic beverages on
Sundays if they get local approval.
State Sen. Renee Unterman (R-Buford), sponsor of the Gwinnett
stadium bill, urged the committee not to tack the Sunday package sales
measure onto her legislation. Unterman said Gov. Sonny Perdue has told
her he would veto any legislation that allows local communities to vote
on such Sunday sales. She said Perdue told her he would sign her
Gwinnett stadium beer sales bill.
Rep. Allen Freeman (R-Macon), a member of the House committee,
responded that Unterman was being hypocritical by urging lawmakers to
approve Sunday beer sales at the Gwinnett stadium but opposing Sunday
sales at grocery and convenience stores across the state.
Perdue spokesman Bert Brantley would not say the governor would veto a bill on Sunday package sales.
But Brantley said: "He's been asked over and over and over again,
and he's been consistent and clear. He'd have a hard time being
convinced to give it his vote."
—-Staff writer Andrea Jones contributed to this article.
