Well, that's not it at all really
Good grief.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has divorced himself from reality in his upcoming op-ed regarding his opposition to Sunday Sales ...
The sponsors of the New Mexico legislation hoped that allowing sales for off-premise consumption might encourage more people to buy alcohol and drink at home, thus reducing accidents and deaths. This argument was a tempting trap for the state’s legislators, and many of our own elected officials are chasing the same carrot without seeing the stick.
Now, I have always been a data-driven decision maker, so let me share the numbers with you. The study found that alcohol-related crashes increased by 29 percent on Sundays in counties that allowed sales.
Those additional crashes led to a 42 percent increase in alcohol-related fatalities on Sundays. If we apply these same percentages to Georgia’s highways, using 2006 data from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, we can expect approximate increases of 371 alcohol-related crashes and six alcohol-related fatalities per year.
While fear-mongering is always a good way to score some cheap political points, how can one make this argument with a straight face given that we live in a state where alcohol is sold six other days of the week. For Perdue's logic to work, he would have to advocate banning alcohol sales across the board. Furthermore, the governor is perfectly fine with letting a ballpark in Gwinnett County sell beer and wine on Sundays, and he apparently doesn't care that we currently have the 50 percent rule for restaurants which enables them to sell alcohol on Sundays.
Letting local communities, however, determine what's best for them and, in turn, potentially join the other 47 states which sell alcohol on Sundays is too much for him though.
Seriously, I know this is rather a small issue in the grand scheme of things, but the answer - allowing local communities determine how and when they wish to sell a legally approved beverage - is so brazingly obvious, it staggers me there isn't the political will to just get it done.
Gov. Sonny Perdue has divorced himself from reality in his upcoming op-ed regarding his opposition to Sunday Sales ...
The sponsors of the New Mexico legislation hoped that allowing sales for off-premise consumption might encourage more people to buy alcohol and drink at home, thus reducing accidents and deaths. This argument was a tempting trap for the state’s legislators, and many of our own elected officials are chasing the same carrot without seeing the stick.
Now, I have always been a data-driven decision maker, so let me share the numbers with you. The study found that alcohol-related crashes increased by 29 percent on Sundays in counties that allowed sales.
Those additional crashes led to a 42 percent increase in alcohol-related fatalities on Sundays. If we apply these same percentages to Georgia’s highways, using 2006 data from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, we can expect approximate increases of 371 alcohol-related crashes and six alcohol-related fatalities per year.
While fear-mongering is always a good way to score some cheap political points, how can one make this argument with a straight face given that we live in a state where alcohol is sold six other days of the week. For Perdue's logic to work, he would have to advocate banning alcohol sales across the board. Furthermore, the governor is perfectly fine with letting a ballpark in Gwinnett County sell beer and wine on Sundays, and he apparently doesn't care that we currently have the 50 percent rule for restaurants which enables them to sell alcohol on Sundays.
Letting local communities, however, determine what's best for them and, in turn, potentially join the other 47 states which sell alcohol on Sundays is too much for him though.
Seriously, I know this is rather a small issue in the grand scheme of things, but the answer - allowing local communities determine how and when they wish to sell a legally approved beverage - is so brazingly obvious, it staggers me there isn't the political will to just get it done.
posted by Jmac at 4:04 PM
3 Comments:
I'm just glad 8 years of W have gotten "progressives" to finally realize that "small central government is better."
As long as those small central governments receiving adequate public funds to do their jobs.
"I have always been a data-driven decision maker"
Ha ha! I haven't laughed so much in a long time. Thanks, Sonny, for showing us you still have a sense of humor!
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