Topeka ? Gov. Kathleen Sebelius endorsed a proposal Thursday to preserve cities’ and counties’ recently won authority to legalize Sunday liquor sales and also to authorize Sunday beer sales by grocery and convenience stores.

A legislative study committee drafted the proposal Tuesday and voted to sponsor a bill after the Legislature convenes its annual session in January.

“I think that’s very appropriate,” Sebelius said during a brief interview. “There clearly will be some communities who don’t want to move in that direction. Others, through their elected officials, have already moved in that direction. Having the citizens able to weigh in and vote on that is the appropriate way to go.”

Under the legislative committee’s proposal, city and county commissions could approve Sunday sales, but the right to overrule that decision still would rest with local voters, who could force an election on the issue.

A movement by counties and cities toward Sunday liquor sales began last November after a Wyandotte County judge ruled that the state’s Liquor Control Act is not uniform. As a result, the judge said, local governments may exempt themselves from certain provisions of the law — including the ban on Sunday sales.

The judge’s order, currently under review by the Kansas Supreme Court, did not address the sale of beer in grocery and convenience stores. The study committee’s proposal would allow cities and counties to approve such sales, while maintaining Kansas law’s prohibition on those outlets selling liquor.

“We need a uniform law, and we need, I think, to give the citizens the opportunity to opt in or out of Sunday sales,” Sebelius said.

During this year’s session, legislators considered rewriting the Liquor Control Act to make its provisions apply uniformly to local governments, but the Sunday sales issue prevented them from passing the bill. The House wanted to legalize Sunday liquor and beer sales statewide; the Senate wanted to keep the existing bans.

In the absence of a legislative resolution, many cities and counties — chiefly in northeast Kansas — have adopted Sunday sales ordinances. Among them are Shawnee County, the city of Lawrence, and the Johnson County cities of Leawood, Lenexa, Merriam, Overland Park and Prairie Village.

Supporters of the ban on Sunday sales have said making alcohol more available would lead to social problems and increased traffic accidents and deaths. Opponents of the ban see it as a relic of Kansas’ past, something that puts its businesses at a disadvantage, particularly in counties bordering Missouri, where Sunday sales are allowed.

Some lawmakers fear that if they do not rewrite the Liquor Control Act, cities and counties will exempt themselves from other provisions, such as those that set the legal drinking age at 21 and prohibit underage restaurant workers from serving alcohol.

“I’m hoping we have the Legislature weigh in and unify the law again,” Sebelius said. “I’m very alarmed that they left town without doing that and left wide open whether or not we’re going to have uniform rules about hours or sales or taxes collected. I think the failure of the Legislature to do that created a void for local officials.”