INDIANAPOLIS — A state legislator has introduced a bill that would allow retailers to sell alcohol on Sundays.
Sean Eberhart, R-Shelbyville, said he introduced the bill — for the third consecutive year — because he believes that most Hoosiers do not want to be told when or where they can buy alcohol.
“It’s really a matter of convenience and common sense,” Eberhart told the Daily News Wednesday.
Whether the bill will receive a hearing, a first step toward getting a vote before the full chamber, will be determined in the next two to three weeks, the representative said.
If it moves forward, Eberhart’s bill is likely to see some opposition from liquor stores and nonprofit organizations such as Drug Free Marion County.
Patrick Tamm, chief executive officer for the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, said that allowing retailers to sell alcohol on Sundays would negatively affect the state’s liquor stores. The stores would have to open on Sundays to compete with big-box retailers and grocery stores, which would increase their cost, and some of them may fold.
Eberhart said that his bill does not mandate that stores be open, it just gives them the option.
The legislator, who owns a tool and equipment rental business in Shelbyville, where customers can rent anything from a carpet cleaner to backhoe, said he keeps his store closed on Sundays — but he does not have to.
Eberhart said he does not want the government to dictate when he can or cannot open his store. He suggested that liquor stores could keep their cost structure the same by closing another day of the week. Sunday is the second-busiest shopping day of the week, Eberhart said, so liquor stores could benefit if they simply closed on Tuesday, the slowest day of the week.
Tamm, however, said that customer convenience also needs to be weighed against other interest, including the bill’s impact on public health.
Studies have shown that increasing the times during which alcohol can be sold will have negative consequences, Tamm said.
According to a brochure from Drug Free Marion County, allowing retailers to sell alcohol on Sundays could lead to increased underage drinking.
“A 2007 study of 434 Marion County middle and high school students by Drug Free Marion County showed that 42 percent perceived that one of the ways teens get alcohol is by stealing it from retail stores – the very locations pushing for Sunday alcohol … sales,” the organization wrote.
The organization’s brochure also cites a 2004 World Health Organization report according to which “drinking rates or harmful effects of drinking increase with increased sales times.”
Eberhart said that Indiana is the only state that allows consumers to drink alcohol on site at bars and restaurants on Sunday but prohibits them from purchasing liquor at stores to take home. One could very well argue, he said, that allowing people to take their liquor home — rather than requiring them to drink it at restaurants or bars — would improve safety.
A 2010 analysis of Mark Stehr, associate professor of economics at Drexel University, indicates that repealing bans on Sunday sales of packaged alcohol has no impact on the number of traffic fatalities.
According to the Legislative Services Agency, the state’s nonpartisan research agency, the bill “would not affect total alcoholic beverage sales or revenue from alcoholic beverage taxes or sales tax.”
State Rep. Cindy Ziemke, R-Batesville, said that it gives her pause that Indiana still prohibits alcohol sales on Sundays when most other states have repealed such bans.
She also said that constituents from whom she has heard have indicated they would like the ban to be repealed.
Nonetheless, she said she is undecided on Eberhart’s proposal until she hears more about any impact on the economy and underage drinking.
She urged her constituents to email her to provide input on her decision: cindy@cindyziemke.com.
State Rep. Randy Frye, R-Greensburg, could not be reached Wednesday.
Eberhart said he believes the bill has a better chance to pass this year than in his previous attempts.
“I think we have momentum,” he said. “I think the time is right.”