Previously, liquor could be sold only on Sundays after noon.

Originally a simple piece of legislation granting liquor licenses to 20 qualifying retirement homes, the bill morphed and grew as it traveled through the legislative process, said Cale Sauter, legislative aide to state Rep. Hugh Crawford, R-Novi, who sponsored the bill. It now includes 50 additional pages and six additional sections, including the Sunday morning sales, Sauter said.

However, local units of government also would have a say in this provision, and any county that does not want to allow Sunday morning sales would have the power to prohibit them, Sauter said.

Although the legislation received support from both houses, passing by a vote of 25-13 in the Senate and 73-30 in the House, Granholm’s spokeswoman said the governor is uncertain about signing the bills into law.

“Basically, her main concern is it jumped from an eight page to 58 page bill in a matter of a few hours, so obviously, before she’s able to sign it she needs to review it,” spokeswoman Katie Carey said.

In addition to allowing Sunday morning sales, the bill also could increase sales on Christmas Day, creating only a twelve hour ban between midnight and noon Christmas Day, rather than the 34-hour ban that is currently in place.

The additional hours on Sunday morning sales could stimulate and help ailing businesses, said state Rep. Lee Gonzales, D-Flint Twp., a cosponsor on the bill.

“Anything we can do to help reboot our economy makes sense to me,” Gonzales said. “If it can help a community, let’s say attract additional individuals and bring (business), at the end of the day, that can be a good thing.”

However, the bill was a jumbled mass of legislation whose underlying purpose is to fund Michigan’s budget, said state Sen. Tom George, R-Kalamazoo, who voted against the bill.

“I would have preferred to do the pieces separately,” George said. “To me, it seems a little hasty. Part of the new fees will go fund the budget. There’s nothing wrong with that, we have a budget crisis in Michigan, (but) I think that affected the timing and that led to all these things being lumped together.”

George said he was not opposed to Sunday morning sales, however.
“These (restrictions) are remnants from Prohibition,” George said.

“We’ve had these restrictions on Sunday morning sales and sales on Christmas. I guess I can understand why that might seem a little archaic today.”