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Perdue stance on Sunday sales clashes with past positions

Capitol Impact
by Tom Crawford on 3/14/2008

Gov. Sonny Perdue has all but indicated he will veto legislation that would give Georgians the right to vote on the Sunday package sale of alcoholic beverages, a stance that clashes with positions the governor has taken in the past.

Perdue did not make a definitive statement that he would veto a Sunday sales bill if it crossed his desk, but his statements to reporters Thursday gave the strong impression that he would do just that.

If the governor does veto the bill for the reasons he gave to reporters, then he will be contradicting several positions he has taken in the past on volatile political issues.

When asked why he so adamantly opposed Sunday sales, Perdue said, “I think six days is plenty to gather up. You’ve got refrigerators. You’ve got different stores open. I think we need a little relief on Sunday.”

That statement would seem to indicate that Perdue, who’s a non-drinking Baptist, wants the government to impose his personal religious preferences on all Georgians when it comes to the issue of buying alcoholic beverages on Sundays.

But that contradicts statements Perdue has made in the past where he said he opposed government interference into personal decisions and disliked the idea of a “nanny state.”

In 2005, for example, the General Assembly passed a bill that prohibited smoking in many restaurants and other public places. At the bill signing ceremony, Perdue criticized the legislation because he thought it represented too much of a government intrusion into what is ultimately a personal decision.

"We don't want or need government to mandate for us what we eat or drink or how much exercise we get or whether we engage in dangerous activities, from skydiving to smoking," Perdue said before signing the no-smoking bill.

“I’m concerned about what I refer to as a growing nanny government,” Perdue said on that same occasion. “We really just want government to leave us alone. We want to make our own choices even if they’re the wrong ones.”

"If we could wave a magic wand and everybody would stop smoking that would be great," Perdue added. "But when you start legislating these kinds of issues for people, limiting their choices, it really begins to concern me because of the whole issue of government intrusion."

Perdue has consistently maintained throughout his two terms as the state’s chief executive that he wants Georgia to be a “business friendly state” as a means of creating more jobs for the state’s residents.

But in opposing Sunday sales, Perdue is going against the wishes of several important business groups at a time when the state’s unemployment rate is rapidly rising. Supporters of the Sunday sales bill contend that if it is enacted, there will be more retail business on Sunday with a corresponding need for more employees.

“Georgia is one of only three states in the country to deny local option for retail sale on Sunday,” said Joe Fleming of the Georgia Chamber of Commerce. “As a result, Georgia law puts retail businesses at a competitive disadvantage, losing potential business to Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee.”

“We have heard repeatedly and consistently from our customers that they want the option to purchase beer and wine seven days a week,” said Horace Hamilton of the Kroger Co., which operates 175 grocery stores in Georgia. “This issue is about free enterprise and basic economic fairness.”

“Our customers have been asking for many, many years [for Sunday sales],” said Kathy Kuzava, president of the Georgia Food Industry Association, which represents the interests of grocery stores. “This just simply does not make any sense to our customers.”

Perdue also was dismissive of arguments that voters in a city or county should be given the chance to decide for themselves whether they want to allow Sunday package sales or not.

“I’m very concerned about a lot of the efforts I hear this year about, ‘Well, we’ll just let the people vote on it,’” he said. “I mean, do we want to let the people choose to allow prostitution and those kind of things? Where are we going to draw the line?”

And yet, Perdue himself has proposed constitutional amendments where the state’s voters would be asked to choose whether they support the issue or not – such as his attempt to pass an amendment that would have authorized government funding of religious organizations.