Wed 16 Sep, 2009
While the Indiana General Assembly’s Interim Study Committee on Alcoholic Beverages has begun hearing from both sides, the Gary Post-Tribune yesterday editorialized in favor of two outdated prohibitions that need repeal: the ban on Sunday alcohol sales and the ban on selling alcohol while polls are open on Election Days.
Indiana should lift 2 bans on alcohol
From the Post-Trib:
Indiana is one of just three states that has a complete ban on the sale of liquor when the polls are open.
Both prohibitions should be eliminated for a variety of reasons.
Prohibiting the sale of alcohol on Election Day — in taverns, restaurants and package liquor stores — is a throwback to the day when many polling places were in taverns.
It also was an effort to make it more difficult for unscrupulous politicians to buy votes by passing out bottles of alcohol to the homeless and those who stood in unemployment lines.
The Election Day prohibition not only doesn’t make sense today, it also hurts the state financially in terms of lost sales tax revenue. Shopkeepers also suffer because no one is walking through their doors while the polls are open.
The ban on the sale of alcohol on Sunday also makes no sense.
For example, Indiana law allows a person to order alcoholic beverages on a Sunday if he or she is in a tavern or restaurant.
But the law also prohibits package liquor stores, grocery stores and pharmacies from selling alcohol on Sundays.
In other words, the law is saying it is all right to go out to dinner, have a drink or two and then drive. But you can’t purchase alcohol at a liquor store for consumption at home. It’s time to make the changes.