Sober Sundays continue

Many of you probably watched the IU game this past Sunday. And perhaps, just perhaps, if you’re of that magical age, you chose to consume some variety of alcoholic beverages to enhance your enjoyment of the game-day experience.

That is, if you were in a bar. Or planned ahead (unlikely, given that you’re probably an undergraduate college student).

But you certainly did not drive to your nearby Big Red or pick up a six-pack along with the week’s groceries like the residents of 47 other states might have.

Connecticut, Georgia and Indiana are notably the only states that ban liquor, beer and wine sales on Sunday, while only 14 states ban liquor but allow beer and wine to be sold.

It goes without saying that the ban on Sunday sales is at best inconvenient and outdated, and at worst inefficient and bad for Indiana businesses and state revenue. The Hoosiers for Beverage Choices campaign stated that Indiana’s so-called “blue laws” deprive state coffers of $9 million each year due to residents crossing state lines to purchase alcohol. 

Several bills have been proposed in the Indiana General Assembly but, unfortunately, aren’t making much progress.

For example, a bill authored by Sen. Phil Boots, R-Crawfordsville, that would allow Sunday carry-out alcohol sales, was not endorsed by the Senate Public Policy Committee and therefore will not even receive a hearing.

We agree with Sen. Boots that, as he put it, the opinion of the committee shouldn’t decide the opinion of all 150 legislators. It is wrong of the Public Policy Committee to keep the bill from going to the floor and being discussed and voted on by our elected representatives in order to reflect what Hoosiers – not churches or liquor store lobbies – want.

If the true concern of the Indiana legislature is to protect small liquor stores, which must be owned by state residents by law, and keep money within the state, they could look to states like New Jersey for alternative measures. The Garden State has enacted a permit system which makes the sale of alcohol by grocery stores and pharmacies rare but not impossible.

The Senate Public Policy Committee should follow the lead of the Senate Commerce Committee, which endorsed and brought to the floor legislation that would allow sales by microbreweries on Sunday, similar to the Sunday sales afforded to wineries, and endorse Sen. Boot’s bill so that the people of Indiana and their representatives can vote according to what they think and want. That is, after all, the basis of a representative democracy.