The
debate over whether to allow the sale of alcohol on Sundays in Georgia
has grown quite heated this year. I believe this discussion would be
well served by focusing on the facts rather than emotion. As chairman
of the House Regulated Industries Committee, it was my job to hear the
debate on all sides of this issue. The committee did just that, and the
measure passed unanimously because it is the right thing for Georgia.
At its core, the Sunday sales bill is about fairness. It is only
fair for all sides to admit that we already have sales on Sunday in
Georgia. Bars, restaurants, the Georgia Dome and Turner Field can all
sell alcohol on Sundays. Only grocery, convenience and package stores
are forbidden.
It is illogical for a society bent on reducing drunken driving to
tell its citizens that they can have a drink on Sunday, but they have
to drive somewhere to buy it and consume it before driving home. It is
unfair for the state to create an uneven playing field where some types
of businesses are allowed to profit from Sunday sales while others are
not. It is doubly unfair for grocery and liquor stores in border cities
to lose millions of dollars in business to their competition a few
miles away in Alabama, Florida, South Carolina or Tennessee. In short,
people who want to have a drink on Sunday are going to do so —- the
only question is whether state government should decide who is going to
profit from it.
The Sunday sales bill is inherently fair to all Georgia businesses
but also to communities that do not want to participate. The bill would
not allow for such sales in counties that have already decided to be
"dry," and of course it would only authorize sales in communities that
specifically vote to allow the practice. If a community feels its
standards frown on drinking on the Sabbath, sweet tea will remain the
cocktail of choice. Of course the ultimate freedom is that of
individuals to choose for themselves how to behave on Sunday, as on any
other day.
There are those who say that so-called "blue laws" are a Southern
tradition. If they are right, it is a tradition that has gone the way
of the horse-drawn carriage in the rest of the South. No other Southern
state bans Sunday sales. In fact, in all the nation only Connecticut
and Indiana join Georgia in the practice. Not Alabama, Mississippi,
Tennessee or the Carolinas —- only cosmopolitan Georgia clings to
remnants of its prohibitionist past.
The argument that Sunday prohibitionism saves lives could be
compelling if it were logical or true. It is illogical because —- as
mentioned earlier —- allowing alcohol sales only to those who choose to
drive to and from a place where they can drink flies in the face of
reason. It is untrue because virtually every study that has tested it
has found no increase in alcohol-related accidents or fatalities after
allowing Sunday sales. A study in New Mexico after the state repealed
Sunday prohibitions purported to show an increase in traffic
fatalities, and this study has been used by many critics of Georgia's
proposed reforms as the sole piece of evidence to bolster their
position. The problem is that this study has been widely debunked. In
fact, alcohol-related traffic fatalities in New Mexico fell in the 10
years after the Sunday restrictions were lifted in 1995. Additionally,
per capita consumption of alcohol in New Mexico actually declined for
the three years following the passage of their Sunday sales law.
A broader analysis of the 12 states that have repealed Sunday sales
bans since 2002 shows that the repeal has been a huge success both
commercially and socially. It's been a boon for customers, and there
has been no negative social impact in states that have moved to Sunday
sales.
Activist "studies" and junk science funded by neo-prohibitionist
groups only divert attention from the facts. The facts are that Sunday
sales provide community choice, consumer convenience, income for
Georgia businesses and additional revenue for Georgia. A majority of
Georgians want this right, and the vast majority of Georgians want the
right to have their voices heard on it. It's a good idea whose time has
come.
> State Rep. Roger Williams (R-Dalton) chairs the House Regulated Industries Committee.
