{"id":1328,"date":"2011-09-26T17:37:03","date_gmt":"2011-09-26T21:37:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/?p=1328"},"modified":"2011-09-26T17:38:03","modified_gmt":"2011-09-26T21:38:03","slug":"will-sunday-sales-pass-in-savannah-and-other-local-municipalities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/09\/26\/will-sunday-sales-pass-in-savannah-and-other-local-municipalities\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Sunday sales pass in Savannah and other local municipalities?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"1\" style=\"float: left; margin: 10px 10px 10px 0;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Medium Rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"8584504377\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 300;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 250;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n<p>I&#8217;ve already written a post about one choice that Chatham County voters will have at the polls this November: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/09\/21\/should-we-abolish-term-limits-for-the-chatham-county-chairperson\/\" target=\"_blank\">the removal of term limits on the chairperson of the Chatham County Commission<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Today&#8217;s topic is Sunday package sales. Here&#8217;s what we&#8217;ll see on the ballot in Savannah as well as Bloomingdale, Garden City, Pooler, Port Wentworth, Thunderbolt, Tybee, and the unincorporated county:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Shall the governing authority of [municipality name], be authorized to permit and regulate package sales by retailers of malt beverages, wine, and distilled spirits on Sundays between the hours of 12:30 P.M. and 11:30 P.M.?<br \/>\n( ) YES<br \/>\n( ) NO<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bloomingdale is also voting on alcohol sales by the drink and Sunday sales by the drink.<\/p>\n<p>I would like to think that Sunday sales will pass easily for a number of reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The current law unnecessarily limits the right of some businesses to be open on Sunday.<\/li>\n<li>The current law is essentially a violation of the establishment clause of the Constitution.<\/li>\n<li>The current inability to buy package beer, wine, and liquor on Sunday is a considerable and unnecessary inconvenience to consumers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div>A &#8220;yes&#8221; vote is a pretty easy call for me. If we&#8217;re serious about getting rid of unnecessary government restrictions on commerce, this is low-hanging fruit.<\/div>\n<div>That said, I really don&#8217;t know how the vote will play out. As I noted <a href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/05\/10\/would-sunday-sales-pass-in-savannah\/\" target=\"_blank\">in a post in May<\/a>, the vote is hardly a sure thing. Still, about <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ledger-enquirer.com\/2011\/09\/18\/1740904\/sunday-alcohol-sales-columbus.html\" target=\"_blank\">100 places in Georgia have included a referendum on the general election ballot<\/a>. Not all Georgia cities and counties have elections this November, however, and I do not know of any that have scheduled special elections just to address this issue.<\/p>\n<div class=\"e26b170012445c56d240655bdd03f7bf\" data-index=\"4\" style=\"float: none; margin:4px 0 4px 0; text-align:center;\">\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"><!--\r\ngoogle_ad_client = \"ca-pub-5595881567027133\";\r\n\/* Another large rectangle *\/\r\ngoogle_ad_slot = \"0042810896\";\r\ngoogle_ad_width = 336;\r\ngoogle_ad_height = 280;\r\n\/\/-->\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script type=\"text\/javascript\"\r\nsrc=\"http:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/show_ads.js\">\r\n<\/script>\n<\/div>\n\n<!--CusAds0-->\n<div style=\"font-size: 0px; height: 0px; line-height: 0px; margin: 0; padding: 0; clear: both;\"><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I&#8217;ve already written a post about one choice that Chatham County voters will have at the polls this November: the removal of term limits on the chairperson of the Chatham County Commission. Today&#8217;s topic is Sunday package sales. Here&#8217;s what&hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"more-link-p\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/2011\/09\/26\/will-sunday-sales-pass-in-savannah-and-other-local-municipalities\/\">Read more &rarr;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[8],"tags":[61],"class_list":["post-1328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-livingsavannah","tag-elections"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1gN9R-lq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.billdawers.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}