Topeka ? A proposal to allow Sunday liquor sales in communities where voters approved remained in limbo when the Legislature ended its session Wednesday, leaving the issue to be decided by the courts.

A bill would rewrite the state’s Liquor Control Act to make it apply uniformly to all cities and counties. The House included a provision to allow Sunday liquor sales, but the Senate narrowly rejected the measure a month ago.

After that vote, Senate Republican leaders resisted raising the issue again, leaving the measure to languish. It continued to languish, alive but trapped by opposition among senators.

Senate President Dave Kerr said some senators would not support any changes that would make alcohol more readily available.

“I guess they felt no compelling case was made for Sunday sales,” Kerr, R-Hutchinson, said after the Senate adjourned.

But Rep. Rick Rehorn, D-Kansas City, a supporter of Sunday sales, said the measure would have passed had the Senate voted on it again.

“The Senate leadership is blocking it,” he said.

Proponents argue that the state loses millions of dollars in tax revenues when Kansans buy their liquor in Missouri, which allows Sunday sales. But critics contend allowing such sales would lead to more drunken driving and traffic fatalities.

Last year, the city of Edwardsville and the Unified Government of Wyandotte County approved Sunday sales. A Wyandotte County district judge ruled in March that the Liquor Control Act is not uniform to all communities and, therefore, they can exempt themselves from some of its requirements, including the long-standing ban on Sunday sales.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline is appealing that decision.

“The surest, quickest and most uniform way to overcome the district court’s decision is to amend the Liquor Control Act,” Kline wrote in a letter he sent legislators last week.

Rehorn said allowing the courts to decide would “waste state resources to litigate a matter that doesn’t need to be litigated.”

Sunday sales bill is Sub for SB 2.