Topeka ? The Legislature renews a debate this week that could determine when Kansans can buy beer and liquor and how much it costs.

Legislators are feeling pressure to rewrite state liquor laws because of a Kansas Supreme Court ruling that cities can exempt themselves from a long-standing ban on Sunday sales.

The court ruled earlier this month that because the provisions of the state’s Liquor Control Act — which contains the ban on Sunday sales — do not apply uniformly to all municipalities, cities have home-rule authority to exempt themselves from the statute. More than a dozen communities have passed ordinances permitting Sunday liquor sales since the law was challenged in Wyandotte County.

The Senate this week is expected to take another look at a bill to make the state’s Liquor Control Act uniform.

Citing the court ruling, lawmakers say it’s important to attain uniformity before cities try to opt out of other provisions of the state law, such as the legal drinking age, which is 21.

“A large majority feel uniformity of the Liquor Control Act is necessary,” said Sen. John Vratil, R-Leawood. He said the court ruling makes it even more urgent that the Legislature act on the measure.

Vratil said Sunday sales and increased liquor taxes, both of which were removed from a bill the Senate rejected in February, will be big issues again when the uniformity bill comes back to the Senate floor.

A uniformity measure that included Sunday sales was approved last year in the House and added to a bill in the Senate, which narrowly rejected it. Some senators rejected the measure not because they opposed the concept, but because it didn’t have a tax increase attached to it.

Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, on Friday said some senators probably wouldn’t mind allowing cities and counties to make up their own liquor laws.

“If we’re going to have uniformity, we need to look hard at what’s in the law,” Brungardt said. “I think it’s foregone that Sunday sales will be in it.”

He said lawmakers in districts where cities have passed ordinances allowing Sunday sales oppose creating a law that would take that away from them.

“With or without Sunday sales, I think it would be good to have a uniform liquor law,” said House Minority Leader Dennis McKinney, D-Greensburg. “But I think the only way that passes is probably to have Sunday liquor sales.”

But McKinney also said he doesn’t think the House would approve the bill if it included a tax increase.

One way to avoid a messy debate over a tax increase would be for the Senate to concur with the House on last year’s bill, which was sent to a conference committee.

“We’re on record several times in favor of Sunday sales,” Rep. R.J. Wilson, D-Pittsburg, said of the House. “The bill we had last year is sitting in conference committee, and all the Senate has to do is approve a motion to concur and this will all be done.”

In its March 19 decision, the Kansas Supreme Court cited three instances in which the Liquor Control Act is not uniform. The court said cities’ power to exempt themselves from nonuniform state laws comes from a provision of the Kansas Constitution approved by voters as an amendment in 1960.

——–

Liquor Control Act uniformity bill is SB 305.