If at first you don’t succeed.
State Rep. Senfronia Thompson
Democratic Rep. Senfronia Thompson filed a bill last week that proposed liquor stores be allowed to operate seven days a week.
Under the current law, liquor stores may operate from Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. The stores must close on Sunday, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. If Christmas or New Year’s Day falls on a Sunday, the stores must close the following Monday, according to the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission.
Thompson’s proposal would allow the stores to be open from noon to 10 p.m. on Sundays, but the stores would continue to remain closed on the holidays.
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Texas could potentially gain $7.5 million in new revenue every other year if the Sunday ban were lifted, according to a 2011 Texas Legislative Budget Board analysis.
During the 2011 legislative session, a similar measure failed to gain traction. Companion bills filed by state Sen. Rodney Ellis, D-Houston, and Rep. Jose Aliseda, R-Beeville, were left pending in committee.
Rep. Thompson’s bill is HB421, for those keeping score at home. See here, here, and here for the background. I supported this then and I support it now, mostly because I don’t see any good reason why Sunday should be different than the other days. I’m not the only one who sees it that way, either. We’ll see if this bill has a better fate this time around.
i cant begin to tell you how many human lives are saved because texas does not allow “hard” sales on sundays,for soooooo many hundreds of thousands of people addicted , this sunday affords a much needed reprive…………
charles kuffner is so lost as to the importance of this.
joshua ben bullard
Clinging to vestigial blue laws like no “hard” liquor sales on Sunday is silly. You can go into Randall’s (remember when they were dry?) and buy beer and wine any day of the week.
For a state that “loves personal liberty”, I am still amazed I can’t buy whiskey on a Sunday.