INDIANAPOLIS – A state senator who tried unsuccessfully to end Indiana’s ban on Sunday carryout alcohol sales said Wednesday he plans to try again in the coming legislative session.
Republican Sen. Phil Boots of Crawfordsville said he thought the bill would stand a better chance of passage in the longer budget session that begins in January, when lawmakers have more time to consider the issue. A similar measure died without a hearing during this year’s session.
The bill is backed by an alliance of convenience, drug and grocery stores that includes Kroger, Meijer, CVS and Circle K. The bill also would allow such stores to join package liquor stores in selling cold beer.
The Alliance of Responsible Alcohol Retailers argues that 47 states allow Sunday carryout sales and that Indiana loses about $9 million a year in tax revenue to alcohol sales in neighboring states.
“We are in a dire financial situation right now, and any chance to increase revenues should be considered,” Boots said at a Statehouse news conference arranged by the group.
But Ball State economist Michael Hicks, who studied the effect of Sunday sales and other alcohol regulations in other states last year, cast doubt on that $9 million figure.
He said his study of changes in alcohol regulations between 1980 and 2007 found there was little fiscal effect.
The bill’s backers argue that it doesn’t make sense that people can drink on Sunday at restaurants, taverns and sporting events and then drive home, but they can’t buy a cold six-pack to take home and drink.
Grant Monahan, president of the Indiana Retail Council, said Sunday had become the second-busiest shopping day of the week, and people shouldn’t have to put off part of their shopping until another day because of state law.
The group said 51,000 Hoosiers have signed an online petition calling for ending the Sunday ban. Matt Norris, director of Hoosiers for Beverage Choices, a related grass-roots group, said its members have sent 5,000 e-mails to lawmakers backing the proposed change.
“The time is right,” Monahan said.
But the proposal in the past has faced opposition from many liquor store owners, partly because they believe any business gained would be canceled out by additional costs for being open another day.
They say big-box grocery stores and drugstores could easily absorb any extra costs, and Sunday sales would change alcohol buying habits in those retailers’ favor.
Hicks, the Ball State economist, said his independent research found that changing the law to allow both Sunday sales and alcohol sales at other stores led to the loss of about 25 percent of liquor stores in those states.
But, “This is not a study to say we should or shouldn’t have ... Sunday sales,” he said.
Officials with the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, which represents many of the state’s liquor stores, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Wednesday.
Those who support ending the ban said the free market should be given a chance to work. “The issue is free choice for consumers,” Norris said.
Not all the opposition was based on business, though. A spokesman for the state’s largest Protestant denomination said it would oppose any expansion in the laws that would make alcohol more available.
“Alcoholism is still one of the largest destroyers of families today, and that’s why we would oppose it,” said Dan Gangler, director of communications for the Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church. “We do have a problem in this country with alcohol and it costs us dearly.”
