As we know, one of the Legislative Budget Board recommendations for generating revenue is for the state to allow liquor sales on Sunday. The Statesman takes a look at the debate this proposal has generated.
Legislation to allow Sunday liquor sales died in 2009, but the issue gained momentum this session when the Legislative Budget Board included Sunday liquor sales on a list of revenue-raising options for the Legislature to consider.
It’s an issue that splits the distilled liquor industry.
Distillers are pushing the legislation because they think Sunday sales will increase the demand for liquor. But the Texas Package Stores Association — there are almost 2,500 stores in Texas — opposes it.
David Jabour , the president of Twin Liquors, which has 63 locations in Central Texas, said the legislation would be a burden to store owners.
He argued that opening on Sunday would just spread six days of sales over seven days and increase a store’s overhead.
“It doesn’t pay for itself,” Jabour said. “It ends up costing more in labor and overhead.”
[John Roenigk, co-owner of the Austin Wine Merchant on West Sixth Street,] disagreed.
He said Sunday is second only to Saturday as a popular shopping day. He said he wants a level playing field with his competitors — grocery stores, mainly — who are selling wine on Sundays to his customers.
“The rest of the retail world has changed around us,” Roenigk said. “For the life of me, I don’t know why our industry opposes it.”
Allowing Sunday sales is a no-brainer to me. Let’s be honest, the basis of this restriction is Christian morality – a very specific kind of Christian morality; I can attest that Catholicism has no particular injunction against alcohol. I say that has no place in the law. Individual stores may of course choose to remain closed on Sundays as they see fit, but as Roenigk said earlier in the story, they should have that choice.
The amount of tax revenue at stake here is relatively tiny, which opponents of Sunday sales have used to misdirect the debate a bit.
The budget board staff estimated that allowing Sunday sales would increase liquor consumption by almost 3 percent. That could raise an additional $7.4 million in taxes over those two years, a number that the comptroller has not verified.
Based on the budget board’s numbers, the store owners association estimates that on average a store would only sell an additional 10 bottles of liquor.
“That’s not generating much, even according to their numbers,” Jabour said.
Suzii Paynter with the Texas Baptist Christian Life Commission agrees.
When Texas lawmakers face a budget shortfall as high as $27 billion, Paynter said, $7.4 million won’t go far.
The real money, she said, would be in raising taxes on all alcohol, including beer.
She said the state’s excise tax rate on beer has remained the same since 1984. In 2006, the last time the Legislature considered — and rejected — raising alcohol taxes, some plans to increase taxes on all alcohol would have raised $800 million a year. The tax on a can of beer would have increased to 22 cents from 1.2 cents.
Mike McKinney, a lobbyist with Wholesale Beer Distributors of Texas, said that kind of increase in beer taxes would cripple the industry.
Let me pause for a moment to call BS on Mike McKinney. People aren’t going to stop drinking beer because a six-pack costs $1.20 more. I’m sure sales would drop a little, but “cripple the industry”? Please.
As for Paynter, why is this an either-or situation? I say go ahead and do both – raise alcohol taxes and allow Sunday sales. No, I don’t expect the Lege to seriously consider that, I’m just saying that an argument for one is not an argument against the other. Allowing Sunday sales is an easy one for me, and it should be something the Lege is willing to do. I don’t see the argument against it.
Charles, I forgot if I ever asked you…. have you ever ran for political office? I think I like reading your blog daily not only to stay informed ( I hate TV news, it’s so sensationalized) but because you take a pretty pragmatic approach to most things.
I agree, why not do both. Sell liquor on Sunday if you want to open your store, fine, I can’t tell you how many times I wanted to buy liquor only to realize it’s Sunday and everything is closed, but beer/wine drinkers can still get what they like….why is that?
And I don’t know ANY beer drinkers that would stop because the price went up a little. Just like cigarette taxes, I remember people saying “I’m going to stop when cigs get to $1 a pack”
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