SB 10 Would Permit Local Referendums on Sunday Alcohol Sales
SB 10 was introduced on January 25, 2011. Co-sponsors included State Sens. John Bulloch, Chip Rogers, Don Balfour, Doug Stoner, Freddie Powell Sims, and Johnny Grant.
Rogers is Senate Majority Leader. “Perhaps it has a greater chance of passing this year than ever before,” he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution newspaper.
Former Governor Sonny Perdue had been adamently opposed to alcohol sales on Sunday, but newly elected Governor Nathan Deal supports letting localities decide.
The text of the bill is as follows: “A BILL to be entitled an Act to amend Code Section 3-3-7 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated, relating to the local authorization and regulation of sales of alcoholic beverages on Sunday, so as to provide that in each county or municipality in which package sales of only malt beverages and wine by retailers is lawful, the governing authority of the county or municipality, as appropriate, may authorize package sales by a retailer of malt beverages and wine on Sundays from 12:30 P.M. until 11:30 P.M., if approved by referendum; to provide procedures; to provide for applicability; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.”