Topeka ? Senators defeated a bill to make the state’s Liquor Control Act uniform Thursday, one day after stripping it of provisions allowing Sunday liquor sales and a tax increase on alcohol.

But they also ensured that the issue remains alive.

The Senate voted 24-16 against giving the measure final passage and sending it to the House — after giving the measure first-round approval Wednesday night.

Later, senators voted 18-15 to revive the measure and place it back on the chamber’s debate calendar, where it will remain until leaders decide to bring it up again.

A big sticking point in the legislation is Sunday sales, an issue that initially prompted the bill. Efforts to attach a tax increase to Sunday sales have caused a split among supporters, some of whom say they can’t vote for Sunday sales with a tax increase, and others who say they won’t vote for it without one.

“Now it’s all mired in whether we increase the tax,” said Senate Minority Leader Anthony Hensley, D-Topeka. “There is a group of senators that wants Sunday sales, but they want quid pro quo on a tax increase. We’re a long way away from having a compromise on this issue.”

Hensley said he supported giving communities the option to have Sunday sales.

A Wyandotte County district judge ruled in March 2003 that the state’s Liquor Control Act was nonuniform, meaning its provisions do not apply equally to all cities. That ruling was spurred by a November 2002 vote in Wyandotte County in which 60 percent favored Sunday sales.

Communities may exempt themselves from nonuniform laws, and the judge’s ruling prompted 14 cities, including Lawrence, and one county to pass ordinances allowing Sunday sales. The state has appealed the Wyandotte County decision, and the Kansas Supreme Court heard arguments in December on that appeal.

Atty. Gen. Phill Kline contends that if the Wyandotte County ruling stands and legislators do not act, local governments could start exempting themselves from other parts of the Liquor Control Act, such as the section setting the legal drinking age at 21.

Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, said he still thought Sunday sales would be approved this session. He is chairman of the Federal and State Affairs Committee, where an $11.1 million tax increase on alcohol was added to the bill before it was approved and sent to the full chamber.

“The problem is, people are not voting on one issue, but on peripheral issues” such as the tax increase, Brungardt said Thursday.

Last year, the House approved a bill that would have allowed communities to decide if they want Sunday sales. The Senate version that failed Thursday expressly forbids local governments from exempting themselves from parts of Kansas’ liquor laws and adopting their own alcohol statutes.

Alcohol uniformity bill is SB 305.