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By MYFOXATLANTA STAFF/myfoxatlanta



ATLANTA - The issue of Sunday alcohol sales is expected to get a vote Wednesday under the Gold Dome.

The state senate is set to decide on a bill that would allow local governments to hold referendums to approve the Sunday package store sales of beer, wine and liquor.

Tuesday, the senate rules committee decided to add the Sunday sales bill to the list of bills that will be debated and voted on during Crossover Day.

That's the last time a bill can pass one of the chambers and still become law. The state house would still have to approve it.

State senate majority leader Chip Rogers is among those who support the measure. Rogers says the vote will be close and that it would take bipartisan support to get the bill passed.

The bill was being fast tracked earlier in the session but stalled once opponents voiced objections.

Some Georgia senators opposed to a controversial bill aimed at relaxing alcohol sales laws on Sundays made an interesting case Wednesday.

They argued there will be more drunken driving in Georgia on Sundays.

"You’re going to have... more deaths, more injuries if we pass this bill," said Sen. Bill Cowsert, a Republican from Athens.

Sen. Joshua McKoon, R-Columbus, cited a study that found an increase in crashes and fatalities after Sunday liquor sales were eased in New Mexico.

Sen. Vincent Fort, who said access to liquor is already "prolific" in some neighborhoods, repeated McKoon’s numbers.

"You do the math," said Fort, a Democrat from Atlanta.

Georgians can drink alcohol at bars and restaurants on Sundays, but they can’t buy it at retail stores. A bill that sets the stage to allow retail stores to sell beer, liquor and wine on Sundays was passed by the Senate on Wednesday by a 32-22 margin. The bill still must be passed by the House, and Gov. Nathan Deal has indicated he would sign legislation allowing local communities to vote on whether to allow stores to sell beer, liquor and wine on Sundays.

Our question isn’t whether the bill will pass. We wondered whether these senators are correct about the potential traffic impact of Sunday liquor sales.

Drexel University associate professor Mark Stehr has done several studies on the impact of easing so-called "blue laws." In June, he released a study called "The Effect of Sunday Sales of Alcohol on Highway Crash Fatalities."

That study focused on 13 states that either eased or repealed Sunday liquor laws between 1995 and 2005, using data from the federal government’s Fatality Analysis Reporting System. Those states were Delaware, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Virginia and Washington.

Stehr said other past studies have reached mixed conclusions, but said many of them were outdated, focused solely on one state and failed to consider other traffic factors. Stehr’s study noted that alcohol-related crashes increased in New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, when alcohol sales laws were eased. But those changes came in 1979 and 1984, respectively, before the now-familiar campaigns advising motorists not to drink and drive.

Stehr used alcohol-related fatalities in nearly every state between 1990 and 2008. He recorded an alcohol-related fatality if either a police officer reported that alcohol was involved in the accident or if a blood alcohol test recorded any alcohol in the driver’s blood.

His conclusion? Stehr found no clear evidence of an increase in traffic fatalities in states that repealed Sunday bans on alcohol. His research found no statistically significant increase in beer sales in those states, but a 2.9 percent increase in the sales of liquor. PolitiFact Georgia covered some of this ground in a Feb. 22 fact-checkon the potential economic impact of changing liquor laws in Georgia.

"I think it’s unlikely that Georgia would experience much of an uptick," Stehr told us.

Stehr found New Mexico was the only state that saw an increase (21 percent) in fatalities after changing its Sunday alcohol laws.

As governor of Georgia, Sonny Perdue used New Mexico as a basis for his opposition to changing Georgia’s blue laws in a 2008 op-ed. He cited a study by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (not conducted by Stehr) that found a 29 percent increase in Sunday crashes and a 42 percent rise in traffic fatalities after New Mexico changed its laws.

University of Georgia economics lecturer Jason Rudbeck co-wrote a study that found (with the help of a group that supports changing Georgia’s laws) "no effect" in alcohol-related crashes and fatalities once New Mexico changed its blue laws. He observed New Mexico also raised its speed limit on some roads to 75 mph around the same time the Sunday sales laws were changed, a factor also noted by Stehr.

Rudbeck said, and Stehr agrees, that many people who drink at bars and restaurants on Sundays wind up doing so at home when alcohol laws are charged, thus there is a lesser chance of alcohol-related wrecks.

Stehr noted that federal data shows New Mexico was second only to Montana in the ratio of alcohol-related to all fatal traffic crashes between 1990 and 2008. The professor believes New Mexico was unique from other states he studied because of the speed limit increase, longer driving distances and a higher rate of drunken driving than other states, as shown by the federal data.

In 2008, Colorado eased its Sunday alcohol sales laws. There, the number of drunken driving deaths on highways on Sundays declined, from 20 in 2009 to six in 2010, and fewer drunken-driving tickets were issued, state officials said.

Most research shows there’s little evidence that there will be a major spike in alcohol-related wrecks and fatalities on Georgia’s roads if it changed its Sunday alcohol laws. Colorado, in fact, has found fewer wrecks after changing its Sunday alcohol laws. The New Mexico study cited by Perdue and McKoon has been criticized as flawed.

PolitiFact Georgia found no irrefutable proof that easing Sunday alcohol restrictions "will result" in more traffic crashes and fatalities as some Georgia state senators argued earlier this week.

We rate the senators’ claim False.

By James Salzer
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Legislation allowing voters to approve Sunday sales of beer, wine and liquor in stores easily passed a House committee Tuesday as it began what is expected to be a relatively smooth trip through the chamber on its way to Gov. Nathan Deal's desk.
After less than 10 minutes of testimony and discussion, the House Regulated Industries Committee overwhelmingly passed the bill. It is expected to be up for a vote by the full chamber next week.

The committee vote came less than a week after the Senate approved SB 10. The measure had been stalled in the chamber for five years.

Georgians in many communities can already buy alcoholic beverages at restaurants and bars on Sundays.

Sen. John Bulloch, R-Ochlocknee, sponsor of SB 10, told the committee it is a "local control and democracy" bill.

Rep. Billy Mitchell, D-Stone Mountain, a member of the committee, said he has trouble understanding "why it is OK for a consumer to be at home on Sunday, decide they want some alcohol ... go to certain athletic venues, bars and restaurants, consume all the alcohol they want ... and drive home, but it's not OK for a consumer ... to get in their car and drive to the package store across from the restaurant or bar."

No opponent of the bill spoke at Tuesday's committee hearing. But in a statement, Jerry Luquire, president of the Georgia Christian Coalition, said Sunday sales would lead to more fatal car crashes and that lawmakers were doing the bidding of deep-pocketed alcohol lobbyists.

"The House members who vote for Sunday sales can go home richer and more content," he said. "They have been rewarded by the alcohol industry for their vote."

Deal has already said he will sign the legislation if it wins final approval. If that happens, the issue could be on the ballot in some communities this fall.

By SHANNON MCCAFFREY - Associated Press
Published Sunday, March 27, 2011
Buzz up!
ATLANTA - Most any day the Georgia legislature is in session, you can find lobbyist Jim Tudor in an anteroom steps from the House chamber clad in an apron. Tudor is dishing out food for state lawmakers, something he's been doing for years as the face of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores, whose members want to be able to sell beer and wine on Sundays.

The push to win passage of Sunday alcohol sales appears to operate on a simple assumption: The best way to win a lawmaker's vote is through his stomach.
A fleet of well-connected lobbyists has poured thousands of dollars into wining and dining lawmakers this session as they work to muscle Sunday sales through the state legislature.
And it looks like the effort may be paying off. After bottling the bill up for years, the Senate OK'd Sunday sales earlier this month by a 32-22 vote, bucking a fierce crusade against the measure from the Georgia Christian Coalition.
The House could act on the bill as soon as this week.
The legislation would allow local communities to ask voters to decide whether they want to permit the Sunday sale of beer, wine and liquor at stores. Georgia is currently one of just three states that ban Sunday sales at stores.
The lobbying efforts this year have been visible and intense.
"It's been a full-court press," state Sen. Jeff Mullis R-Chickamauga, acknowledged.licking the powdered sugar from the donut off his fingers. Just my visual
The Georgia Food Industry Association - which represents grocery stores - has taken on eight outside lobbyists to supplement its two person in-house staff. Among the heavy-hitters they've brought in is Pete Robinson, the well-connected former leader of the state Senate who also served on Gov. Nathan Deal's transition team. The Publix supermarket chain has hired GeorgiaLink and John "Trip" Martin(see below), a longtime fixture in the state Capitol lobbying corps.
Tudor and his convenience stores have spent $1,618 feeding House members in the chamber so far this session, according to lobbying disclosure reports filed with the state. Across the rotunda, the food industry group has shelled out $1,693 to keep food and beverages flowing in the Senate. Those numbers will grow before the 40-day session ends.
Yet Tudor said he believes that educating legislators about the bill - rather than free doughnuts - has driven its success this year.
"It has a lot less to do with people's stomachs than just an overall better understanding of this being a local-option issue," Tudor said.
Tudor added that he doesn't lobby in the House anteroom and has been providing the meals for some 25 years, predating the five-year-old push for Sunday sales.
Still, the special access irks some other longtime lobbyists.
"Nobody else gets to do it," said Neil Herring, a veteran Sierra Club lobbyist.
Still, even outside the House and Senate anterooms, lobbyists involved in the Sunday sales fight have paid for private dinners and receptions for lawmakers.
Kathy Kuzava and Jason Bragg from the Georgia Food Industry Association reported spending $2,253 on additional meals and reception costs. Tudor chipped in another $1,536 on a reception.
Neither group reports the money as specifically endorsing the Sunday sales legislation, but that's the highest-profile measure being sought by each group.
The actual dollars spent to push for Sunday sales are sometimes difficult to track because lobbyists do not report specifically what bill they are lobbying on behalf of.
Martin reported spending $7,867 on legislators so far this session - everything from $80 for snacks for Democratic Leader Stacey Abrams and her aides to $2,032 for commemorative books for the House Majority Caucus staff.
The report does not specify any legislation being sought and lists only his firm GeorgiaLink rather than a particular client. Martin has a large roster of clients in addition to Publix.
Michael Mitchell, another Publix lobbyist, spent more than $3,300 on lawmakers, including $219 for flowers to grace the lapels of each member in honor of International Women's Day.
But one thing is clear from state disclosure reports: Members of the legislative black caucus - whose votes were in doubt - were courted aggressively, especially those in the state Senate where a close outcome was predicted.
Kuzava spent $163.93 on a meal for five black senators.
Tharon Johnson, who ran Kasim Reed's campaign for mayor of Atlanta and is one of the grocery industry lobbyists, spent $375 on dinners for black lawmakers and tickets to the legislative black caucus dinner.
Another grocery lobbyist, Rob Willis, also reported spending on meals for several senators in the black caucus.
The father-son team of Ed and Stony McGill, who lobby for the state's liquor stores, have poured $2,720 into receptions, dinners and hospitality suites for legislators. The spending including $250 on tickets to the legislative black caucus dinner.
"We were heavily lobbied. More so than on other issues," said state Sen. Lester Jackson, a Savannah Democrat. "They tried to make an appeal to urban legislators, and there was a thought that Sunday sales would have a special appeal to African-Americans."
Nonetheless, Jackson voted against the bill, concerned it could put more intoxicated drivers on the road.
Overall, the caucus was split, with six for, six against and on excused.
This year's onslaught may owe more to the executive branch than the legislative one.
Former Gov. Sonny Perdue had threatened to veto Sunday sales for years, but Deal has said he'll sign the bill if it reaches his desk, casting it not as support, not for drinking, but for local control.
Religious groups that oppose Sunday sales complained they were outmatched by deep pocketed business interests.
"The votes went where the dollars were," Georgia Christian Coalition President Jerry Luquire said.
"I have been to Las Vegas one time and the smell of greed overwhelmed me. That same smell was outside the Senate when they passed that bill," he said.