news

Gov. Sonny Perdue has made no secret of his opposition to allowing grocery and convenience stores to sell alcohol on Sundays. In a new opinion piece he penned for use in Georgia newspapers, the governor, a conservative Baptist who doesn't drink, said public safety is a large part of the reason why.

In the op-ed, titled "The Tragic Cost of Sunday Sales," Perdue cited a study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that found alcohol-related crashes increased in New Mexico counties that began permitting Sundays alcohol sales in the 1990s.

Perdue said allowing Sunday sales in Georgia, would, likewise, do more harm than good.

"If you have ever comforted the parents or grandparents of a young person lost in a DUI crash, then you know that the cost of this proposal is too great and the damage it stands to inflict is too heavy a burden for innocent families to bear," Perdue wrote.

Supporters of Sunday sales have said the New Mexico study is flawed. It neglects to take into account, for instance, that the state also hiked its speed limit. Overall, drunken driving fatalities decreased after the blue laws were repealed, they said.

A House committee has attached a Sunday sales measure to a separate Senate bill that would permit beer sales at a Gwinnett County stadium on Sundays. The revised bill has not been voted on yet. The proposal would allow voters to decide if they want to permit Sunday sales at stores in their communities.

Perdue's last opinion piece was July 4, 2007 and dealt with his trip to Normandy.