When the General Assembly convenes next month, its No. 1 goal will be to draft a new two-year state budget. Lawmakers will have their hands full with that task, but there is no doubt other legislative proposals — apart from the budget — will get hearings.
There’s at least one such proposal that needs to be heard.
Recently, some business groups started another push aimed at ending Indiana’s longtime ban on Sunday alcohol sales at retail stores.
The Hoosiers for Sunday Sales coalition announced a campaign Tuesday to build support for a bill that would allow such sales in groceries, pharmacies and liquor and convenience stores, according to the Associated Press. The group includes the Indiana Chamber of Commerce and the Indiana Retail Council, which includes grocery stores among its membership.
Liquor store owners have opposed lifting the Sunday ban, arguing the change would benefit large chain grocery and convenience stores because overhead costs of being open an extra day would outweigh any revenue liquor stores might gain.
If all of this bickering about Sunday sales sounds familiar, it should. Previous campaigns have been launched in an effort to overturn the ban, but they have always failed to advance in the Legislature.
It should be noted that not only is Indiana the only state that prohibits retail carryout sales of beer, wine and liquor on Sundays, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, but Indiana has the broadest — and perhaps most confusing — restrictions on Sunday sales, the Associated Press reported.
The problem with Indiana’s current law is that it allows restaurants, bars, breweries and wineries to sell alcohol on Sundays, but doesn’t allow grocery and liquor stores to peddle the same goods to consumers. Even more confusing is that the state allows consumers to carry out alcohol from restaurants and bars on Sundays, but again, disallows it for liquor stores and grocery retailers.
Obviously, a hearing on overturning the ban on Sunday sales isn’t urgent. The budget must take precedence. But, at some point, legislators must tackle this matter and quit kicking the beer can down the road. Lawmakers must allow free entrprise to work, stop imposing moral values on the marketplace and give each segment of the retail economy equal leverage.
This is one Prohibition-era law that should’ve been left in the 1920s. We urge lawmakers to at least hear the arguments and give Sunday sales its day in the Legislature.
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