Every Sunday, Minnesotans pour over borders to liquor stores in North Dakota, Wisconsin and Iowa in search of alcohol.
Under proposed legislation by Rep. Tom Anzelc, DFL-Balsam Township, these Minnesotans would be able to buy alcohol at local liquor stores with the state’s share of tax revenue dedicated to funding of county children’s social services.
State revenue from sales tax on Sundays could equal up to $10 million a year, according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, an industry group that supports less-restrictive liquor laws.
The state’s share of sales tax revenue would be put into a special fund for county children’s services — an area of funding threatened with cuts as lawmakers scramble to balance an almost $5 billion state deficit.
Now, 10 million is just a tiny fraction of our massive deficit, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t pass this bill. Our state’s ban on alcohol purchases on Sundays is a relic of a time long since past. Blue laws like this one should be repealed, and the extra tax revenue is just a bonus.
100% agree.
DtM, we agree on something. Who would’ve thunk it. I would like to add that in addition to the repeal of the law banning Sunday sale of liquor, I would like to see a repeal of the laws banning the home cultivation of marijuana.
While tax revenue is no reason to make a change like this, common sense is. This should have been done years ago. Get-R-Dun. And the tax revenue should be put wherever the rest of the liquor tax goes, not this dude’s pet project.
Will you look at that. I agree with Zack and Richard (on the alcohol part) and probably most of the rest of you here. Alcohol - bringing people together since someone first drank old fermented apple juice.
And JP, I absoluately agree. It should be done becuase it is the right thing to do, not becuase of the money it would earn for the state. Wish so many other decisions were also made with this logic.
The state of PA finally allowed beer sales on Sunday a few years ago ( mainly to appease football fans who needed beer for the tailgate) and the gates of hell did not open up and swallow all the good God-Fearing masses. The state did make the distributors buy a special Sunday license to do what they had already been doing (selling beer) for 50 years or more.
If were going to allow Sunday sale of alcohol, why not home cultivation of marijuana. The state of Minnesota spends millions on the enforcement of laws that are archaic and run opposed to common sense. Allowing home cultivation would effectively de-criminalize marijuana and save the state millions.
Any and every friend of mine who arrives here to visit can’t even believe our liquor laws. I would love to see a state poll on this. Especially Hennepin Cty. laws. It’s a joke to most on the outside, and even moreso inside the state. MN has a long way to go. I think this will reconcile itself sooner than later.
Booze…bringing Republicans and Democrats together since 2009!
I agree, time for this law to be changed.
“Allowing home cultivation would effectively de-criminalize marijuana and save the state millions.”
Not only would you save on enforcement, but you could tax its production, or at least tax the source seed used to plant. And tax it at a hefty rate.
Look at that, I’m agreeing with legalizing Mary Jane and raising a tax! Actually, Milton Friedman, whom many of you despise, was also a strong advocate of legalizing marijauna for these reasons as well.
This is a look at the economic benefits of outright legalization, rather compelling.
http://www.prohibitioncosts.org/mironreport.html
I would hate to see the legalization of marijuana but it certainly can become decriminalized. The difference is if legalized, it could be marketed and sold. If RJ Reynolds get’s hold of it, it will quickly become a problem. Decriminalization will simply allow home cultivation but still allow for laws about the sale and distribution.
Sunday booze is a good idea.
Legalization of pot is not going to happen.
No matter what state laws do.
There are always anal people in every state who can’t see past their noses.
The feds will see to that, because its a national decision.
No one’s got the political courage to walk that one, because there WILL be some problems.
Whether it should be legalized is dicey. There are people with problems & no restraint.
Misuse of booze by some disparate segments of society doesn’t get in the way of alcohol being legal.
Carryover of those kind of arguments never work well.
Minnesota is sort of a Little Utah in this.
Not anal enough to distribute booze only through state run liquor stores & clubs, etc.
But still anal enough to tell people they can’t buy full strength beer on the weekend.
When I worked and lived in North Dakota, the off sales were open until 1 a.m. Every bar had one attached. Then they added Sunday off sales and guess what, nothing bad happened. People who had forgotten to get beer on Saturday for the Sunday game (just like those who forget the butter before Thanksgiving dinner) ran to the store and got some.
As others have noted, Minnesota is a joke when it comes to our liquor laws. Hopefully this will be the first of many steps to correct those inadequacies. My only question is this - how will this affect munis? Could cities still keep theirs closed on Sundays when those in the next town could be open?
It will be curious to see how the MLBA lobby reacts. As an example from another sales line - car dealers themselves have for years opposed allowing sales on Sundays.
What is the point of designating the tax from Sunday sales to a specific line item of the budget? Is there some proof that Sunday sales increases overall alchohol sales or does it just spread out the same amount of sales over a longer time period? If there won’t be an increase in sales, this bill would simply cut the revenue to other programs by dedicating Sunday sales to a social services, and could just result in a parallel cut of their money from the general fund.
I’m all for opening the liquor stores on Sunday, but the designation seems like a cheap ploy to get support that will only result in more complexity in the budget without any increase in real funds for social services.
100% agree. also legalization and taxation of Marijuana. Also…CAR SALES! Hello?!
THANK YOU! When I was in Student Congress (high school students pretending to be Congress) 4 years ago, one of the resolutions I wrote was to do this. It was my proudest one because it is the most common sense thing I’ve ever heard and it is a great example of when Gov. is stupid and allows for crap like this to still exist.
Damn, now I want to go and get some beer but I cant, ITS SUNDAY!
“Is there some proof that Sunday sales increases overall alchohol sales or does it just spread out the same amount of sales over a longer time period?”
I have a friend who owns and operates a wine shop. He says that all the proof he has seen shows that the sales that would have occurred over 6 days would now occur over 7. No additional sales, just 7 days of working. (that is why he is not for it… 1 more day of paying someone, but no more days of revenue).
I think the case of additional sales comes in places like Stillwater, Duluth, or Moorhead, where people can go 2 miles across a border and buy. That buying they do on Sunday might happen to be all the buying they intended to do that week.
If you sold liquor on Sundays, do you really think all the sales would be new sales? Of course not. If you dedicated the tax revenue from the Sunday sales, you would be taking money away from general tax revenue. There is no real reason not to sell on Sunday, but Anzelc’s bill is just plain stupid.
Dan: It’s like you didn’t read the post above yours at all. Border towns would see increased in-state revenue from Sunday purchases at the least. Aside from that, your guess that there would be NO additional sales is pure conjecture. There may be more sales, and there may not.
Actually, there is good evidence that sales can see significant increases.
“A recent study found that the dozen states that have recently allowed liquor to be sold on Sundays generate more than $200 million in new state revenue every year. The average liquor store in these states is earning between 5 and 8 percent more per week.”
Half a life time ago I worked for an autoparts store chain. We had comparable stores in Fargo and Moorhead. The Moorhead store had Sunday sales the Fargo store did not. Their daily sales varied, their weekly and annual sales totals were not significantly different. My evidence based conclusion is that Sunday sales did not add to the annual sales volume. They may help if other local stores don’t have Sunday sales, but otherwise no difference. It likely to be the same with alcohol. As a letter writer in the Strib pointed out today, if we are going to balance the budget by feeding the dark side of the human spirit, e.g., gambling and liquor sales perhaps we should pander to other vices as well. Prostitution licenses would get us many US Republican Senatorial visits from the likes of Larry Craig and Vittner. No doublt opium dens and legal crack houses could be taxed to a fare the well. And then there is always to potential for issuing licenses to kill to in-duh-viduals exercising their god given 2nd Amendment right to bear arms. What good is a right to keep arms without the right to bear arms? So right wingnuts what is it worth to have a license to as Jesse the Gov said to “hunt man” or paraphrasing Mike Huckabee to “take care of political business”?
Im going to argue the opposite. Come on, there have been PLENTY of Sundays where liquor stores have missed out on my revenue because I planned on drinking Sunday night but had no booze. And when I wasn’t 21, this obviously was a predicament. (I started drinking when I was 19 and in college so dont think too poorly of my illegalities). But there have been plenty of Sundays where I didnt plan ahead and so instead of everyone being happy, me drunk, the state with revenue, and the stores with sales, nobody got anything.
I would argue that simply having the stores open on Sunday will raise sales as now the possibility is there, people can randomly decide Sunday afternoon or night that they feel like drinking and having people over. Tada, opportunity.
There will definitely be some increased sales and tax revenue, I think figuring out how much it will be is the tough part and I would guess it wont be that much. And tying the tax to spending requirments is REALLY stupid. We shouldnt need to tie this to needy kids to pass, liquor stores should be open on Sunday, period.
lojasmo, I didn’t say that there would be no increase. Rather, what I said was that: “If you sold liquor on Sundays, do you really think ALL the sales would be new sales? Of course not” I’ll assume that you just didn’t read my comment very carefully and were not deliberately trying to distort what I said.
My problem isn’t with the Sunday sales. Rather, it is with the dedicated fuding. Since not ALL of the sales would be new sales and SOME would be sales that would have otherwise occurred on other days, there is going to be less general revenue created if you dedicated the Sunday sales taxes.
Whatever the case, liquor sale laws are far too stringent. It should be sold on Sundays, and wine and beer should be sold in grocery stores (if the grocery store so chooses). Likewise on the wacky weed — legalize it, and get the government paws in on the transcations. Take a nice cut of the business like they do for cigarettes and alcohol, and use that money to decrease property or income tax.
I do, however, agree with cities having the right to tightly regulate on-sale alcohol licenses. Serving alcohol has a public nuisance implication and cities should be able to regulate as stringently as they wish.
I agree with Dan and Julie. The incremental sales will not be that great. This is really a lot more complex an issue than most of the commenters here understand. It is connected to changing other liquor laws that will not be so good for consumers, especially those who appreciate better beer than most tailgaters swill.
Thanks for giving the subject for a new post.
I agree absolutely. As far as I’m concerned, liquor should be available 24-7.
Wow, we’ve all agreed on this (I think - I’m at work so I can’t read all the posts). Let’s all go for a beer and celebrate (bring pillow-swords for fighting)!
Another ridiculous law that should be repealed is car dealerships being closed on Sundays. Comments?
Yes, we really should make it easier for people to get wasted 7 days a week rather than a mere 6. That way people can spend less time caring about how much Minnesotan families pay in taxes.
Anyone who thinks border cities are the only ones who would benefit from Sunday liquor sales only need to go over to Hudson and Houlton liquor stores on a Sunday and see how many folks from Minneapolis and St. Paul are lined up there. These laws are holdovers from prohibiton, and in most cases, it was the mob who ended up writing state liquor laws. That’s why there are laws in Minnesota requiring you to go through a wholesaler, and allowing wholesalers to claim exclusive sales rights in a given territory simply for making one sale, whether or not they have a contract or not.
The liquor distribution business is still run like the mob, so whatever they say, goes. Why do you think Minnesota took so long to license brewpubs, while the rest of the country had them for years — including Utah? Why do you think it took years to be able to buy growlers in brewpubs, when most states had them for years — including Utah? It was the mob-like liquor distribution business and licensed beverage lobby holding it up. Of course, the sanctimonious religious lobby and the phony MADD Mom’s haven’t helped.
The social benefit of relieving the traffic jam at Chicago Lake Liquor at 9:45 every Saturday night far outweighs the downside of a minor uptick in alcohol use as a result of 7 day sales.
As a guy who likes my alcohal a little to much I wish we added a day of non sales, if you need it you get enough in advance, if you crave it and can’t get it that’s a good thing.