Their view: Allowing Sunday liquor sales would limit choices

John Livengood, president and CEO of the Indiana Association of Beverage Retailers, offers his view of Sunday alcohol sales.

This week, the governor of Connecticut signed a bill expanding the off-premise sale of beer, wine and liquor on Sunday. Like Indiana, Connecticut had previously only allowed the carry-out sales on Sunday of wine at wineries and beer at small breweries.

The advocates of easier access to alcohol in Indiana will now say we are the only state without Sunday sales. The truth is that Indiana is now one of 12 states that prohibit any Sunday sales of liquor and one of 32 states that do not have the statewide sale of liquor on Sunday.

If Indiana were to do what those who favor easier access to alcohol advocate, we would be more like California than Connecticut. California is one of only a few states that have essentially deregulated the sale of alcohol. In Connecticut, you can't buy liquor in a grocery store, and you can't by beer in a gas station.

Allowing liquor stores in Connecticut to sell liquor will not put anyone out of business. In Indiana, 250 small businesses would go out of business, and a thousand employees would lose their jobs as stores like Wal-Mart that allow easy access to alcohol by both adults and minors would increase their market share at the expense of locally owned and operated package stores. There would be a shift in where alcohol is sold, but there would be no increase in tax revenue or employment as some have claimed. The sale of alcohol that now takes place on six days would simply be spread out over seven days. Hoosiers would have fewer choices of locations and fewer choices of alcohol products as items that only package stores carry would be harder to find.

The debate in Indiana over the past five years has not been about "when" alcohol can be sold as much as about "who" sells alcohol and "how" it is sold. Hoosiers have told us that they want alcohol to be regulated, and they prefer the restrictions state law requires for package stores. We don't believe allowing liquor stores to sell liquor on Sunday in Connecticut will change how Hoosiers want alcohol sales to be regulated in Indiana.