New York: Sale of alcohol on Sunday mornings has trouble clearing Albany hurdles

 

Source: Buffalo News

By Tom Precious

June 7, 2016

 

The Sunday morning mimosa or bloody mary may be on the way – or not.

 

Legislation has been advancing in the State Senate to relax New York’s long-held blue laws that prohibit restaurants, bars and places such as Ralph Wilson Stadium, bowling alleys and golf courses from selling alcohol before noon on Sundays.

 

But the legislation has hit roadblocks in the Democratic-controlled Assembly, where lawmakers want to put the brakes on the push to lift the prohibition.

 

The matter is among those under discussion at the top levels of the Legislature and the Governor’s Office as lawmakers look to end their 2016 session a week from Thursday.

 

The lifting of the restriction has created deep divides within the Western New York delegation, with lawmakers in both parties pointing to Assemblyman Robin L. Schimminger, D-Kenmore, chairman of the Assembly’s Economic Development Committee, as the main obstacle.

 

Stuck in committee

 

Schimminger, whose committee holds the fate to the change in the Sunday blue laws, is unapologetic.

 

“Why is it so important to make this change when there is so much else that needs to be addressed?” the assemblyman said. “Sunday is different from other days. When people work a five- or six-day workweek, the day of rest is Sunday, and historically that has been respected in the statute.”

 

Schimminger and other lawmakers say they are open to relaxing the restriction on Sunday sales of alcohol to 11 a.m.

 

Assembly Majority Leader Joseph D. Morelle, D-Irondequoit, is pushing legislation for an 8 a.m. Sunday alcohol sales, but his bill is stuck in Schimminger’s committee.

 

“The pushback is, it’s different, and people are often happy with what they know,” Morelle said of opposition to easing the restriction on Sunday sales.

 

Morelle flips the Sunday Sabbath argument around on critics.

 

“Not everyone’s Sabbath is on Sunday,” he said. “. It’s disrespectful to certain faiths, which have Saturday as the Sabbath, to say you can participate Saturday morning, but not Sunday morning.”

 

The Sunday blue laws date from at least a 1934 statute creating the state’s Alcohol Beverage Control laws that followed the end of Prohibition.

 

Under pressure from religious and community leaders in the 1930s, New York imposed Sunday restrictions. Over the years, some of those laws have been undone, such as one that banned grocery store sales of beer before noon on Sundays, which was rescinded in 2006. Beer sales at retailers are allowed 24 hours a day, except between 3 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Sundays.

 

Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, a majority of senators and an unknown number of Assembly members want to change the remaining 82-year-old Sunday restrictions. Cuomo also proposed an omnibus bill to undo alcoholic beverage laws dating from the post-Prohibition period. He based his plan on recommendations from a working group, whose members were overwhelmingly tied to industry groups.

 

Earlier alcohol sales for Sunday restaurants and bars was among the proposals. There are also several “stand-alone” bills addressing the Sunday morning sales.

 

Industry insiders say the sole hurdle to passing the measure is the 150-member Assembly, where many Democrats who control the chamber have voiced concern. Assemblyman Richard N. Gottfried, D-Manhattan, said community groups in New York City have called for a delay in passage as they try to gauge the neighborhood impact.

 

Additionally, several lawmakers feel that the legislation is being jammed through with little or no public airing, during the flurry of bill passage in the last two weeks of the session.

 

Supporters of the easing the Sunday alcohol sales restriction say the law should be modernized.

 

“The world has changed,” said Scott Wexler, executive director of the Empire State Restaurant & Tavern Association.

 

Consumers increasingly head to bars and restaurants on Sunday mornings to watch European soccer matches, which he said can take place on 40 Sundays in a year.

 

The Buffalo Bills want to be able to offer earlier alcohol sales as a way to entice fans from pregame parking lot tailgating parties into the stadium, lawmakers added.

 

Moreover, supporters note they’re not hearing from religious organizations in any major fashion. “We are not taking a position on it,” Dennis Poust, a spokesman for the New York State Catholic Conference, the official voice of the state’s bishops, said of the bill on Sunday sales of alcohol.

 

Proponents of the measure include restaurants, bars, tourism groups, bowling alleys, the Business Council and the National Federation of Independent Business.

 

They say lifting the restriction would affect only businesses with on-premises alcohol licenses and that an additional permit from the State Liquor Authority would still be required for establishments wanting to sell alcohol before noon on Sundays.

 

Moreover, counties can still ask the state to abide any resolution enacted on the local level that seeks a later hour.

 

Backers say the current law no longer makes practical sense. For instance, a golfer can purchase a six-pack of beer at 9 a.m. on a Sunday and bring it with him to a course that, under current law, could not sell the golfer a beer to take out onto the course until noon.

 

Contrasting views

 

“It doesn’t really make sense as a matter of public policy that the state will say you can’t have a drink in a restaurant on a Sunday morning for brunch, but you’re free to walk into any retail store and buy as many cases of beer as you want,” said Assemblyman Sean M. Ryan, D-Buffalo.

 

Or, he said, Bills fans will head into the stadium before noon on a Sunday and be banned from buying a beer – “even though they just left a parking lot with tens of thousands of people drinking beer.”

 

“Any other day of the week, individuals have the ability to walk into a bar or restaurant and have a cocktail of their choice. On a Sunday morning, it should be no different,” said Sen. Timothy M. Kennedy, D-Buffalo.

 

But one lawmaker is underwhelmed by the whole discussion.

 

“I’m not sure why we, as Americans, are always attempting to alter the condition of our minds, particularly on a Sunday,” said Assemblywoman Crystal D. Peoples-Stokes, D-Buffalo. “I’m a strong worshipper, so I think we should be in church all Sunday or somewhere worshipping the Creator.

 

“So,” she said of the bill on Sunday sales of alcohol, “I don’t know if I like that idea at all.”