Venecia

In an earlier chapter of my professional life, for several years, I spent a lot of time at the Legislature in another state. There, and generally not fondly, certain lobbies were known as The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. They could push through pretty much any bill that advanced their agenda -- or leave legless ones that didn't. One Horseman was an aggregate of liquor interests -- manufacturers, retailers and the all-powerful tavern owners.

Not coincidentally, that state leads the nation in binge drinking rates, has higher-than-national-average alcoholism rates and more drinking among young people. Advocates for tougher DUI laws have had only marginal success in recent years. The public spending necessitated by drinking rates is among the highest per capita nationwide. There are various explanations for what some have called the "wasted culture" there.

In the state where I live now, a neighboring one, the culture is different. With origins in religious recognition of Sabbath, "blue laws" restricting commerce on Sunday still apply in two notable industries: booze and auto sales. Some sands shifted after the last election and as the Legislature convenes, the possibility of Sunday bans on alcohol sales being lifted is rapidly gaining steam. And attention.

The legislative culture has its own dynamics here. To some extent, we have our own version of Horseman, but they tend to be more counterbalanced. The most striking difference between the two states? The biggest opponents of Sunday liquor sales: liquor stores.

While it might seem counter-intuitive, it stems from opposition from Mom-and-Pop store owners, who say their revenue is likely to stay the same, but the cost of doing business will go up if they must be open seven, not six, days. They don't want to be pitted against larger liquor retailers. I suspect the larger stores would love to be open on Sunday but they're a united front, fearing that a loss on Sunday sales will weaken them and be a slippery slope to their shared greatest fear -- allowing liquor to be sold in grocery stores, gas stations and the like. (We're pretty much an outlier on that one, too.) The other strange bedfellows in the debate? Labor unions. Their opposition last time was probably what did in Sunday sales legislation; they're concerned about its impact on contracts between distribution truck drivers and their employers.

It may be the end of an era. The influence of brewpub taproom owners, leading proponents of looser Sunday sales, is growing. The grocery owners' lobby is chomping at the bit to get liquor in their stores. Border cities would love to keep the sales, and sales taxes, in their towns.

I'm ambivalent about the liquor industry. Most people who buy alcohol don't have our problem. But let's face it -- people like me were "disproportionate revenue generators." They need us. I know damn well what Sunday sales would have meant for me. I'm pretty queasy about the idea of loosened liquor laws having the unintended -- though not unforeseeable -- consequences that exist in the first state I described. And while I don't want to generate any "nanny state" debates, it strikes me that for whatever reason they were codified, some blue laws protect us against ourselves.

It'll be interesting.