February 13, 2008 4:22 PM

It’s loosen liquor laws day under the Dome -- Everyone’s elbowing up to a packed bar

It’s loosen liquor law day under the Dome and everyone’s elbowing up to a packed bar.

In one Senate hearing room, it was standing-room-only as lawmakers heard impassioned for-and-against arguments on SB 82, which would dump the ban on Sunday booze sales.

Likewise, it was SRO in the Old Supreme Court chambers where folks were lining up to toast or trash SB 149. It would allow grocery stores to sell real beer and wine – not just that 3.2 swill.

At the Sunday booze bill hearing, it was largely immigrant Ethiopian and Eritrean mom-and-pop liquor shops against the bill and Korean mom-and-pop stores pragmatically accepting that working a seventh day would be good for business.

Critics said Sunday sales will drive hundreds of small shops out of business and rob owners of rare day off for church and family time.

“Sunday should be a time of rest,” testified one African immigrant store owner. “That’s the day we can spend quality time with our family.”

Others mom-and-pop owners agreed.

“For Pete’s sake, even the good lord took Sunday off,” said Stuart Hoover, owner of Willows Liquor in Lakewood. “I get one day a year off – and that’s on Christmas.”

“We’re going to be paying for extra employees, electricity and everything else to sell (on Sunday) what we probably would have sold on Saturday anyway.”

But bill sponsor Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, it's time to deep-six an outdated law that's banned liquor stores from opening on Sundays since Prohibition ended in 1933. She also noted that Sunday liquor sales are projected to generate $4 million in sales taxes for the state.

“This bill is about consumer convenience and bringing Colorado’s outdated liquor laws into the 21st century,” Veiga said later. “It doesn’t make sense for a free market society to regulate which days businesses can and cannot conduct their business.”

The Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee voted 5-1 to advance the Sunday booze sale bill. Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steamboat Springs, was the lone no vote.

Combatants are still waiting to hear debate on the grocery store wine-and-beer sales bill. --Alan Gathright

Posted by Alan Gathright at 4:22 PM | Comments (0)