Coloradans will buy more booze — and help dump an extra $6 million in taxes into state coffers each year — if liquor stores open on Sundays, state fiscal analysts estimate.
A finance-committee vote of 5-1 on Tuesday sent the bill to the Senate floor and further than any other Sunday sales proposal in recent history, liquor store lobbyists said.
The progress — touted as a convenience for liquor fans — isn’t good news to everyone. Concerned Denver resident Daniel Esquibel labeled liquor stores “islands of instability” and asked lawmakers to keep them closed one day a week. The new law could take a bite out of gas-station revenue by leading beer buyers away from the lower-potency beer on convenience store shelves.
Up to 10 percent of a gas stations’ business is done in beer sales, with the great majority happening when liquor shops are closed, convenience store lobbyist Grier Bailey said.
Thirty-four other states already permit Sunday sales, said the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver.
Jessica Fender: 303-954-1244 or jfender@denverpost.com
