Unless legislators can agree on a statewide ban, Sunday liquor sales in 15 communities will continue and other cities and counties will be able to permit sales on the Christian Sabbath.

Senate-passed legislation that reaffirms Kansas’ historic ban on Sunday sales — and clarifies that it applies to all cities and counties — awaited a vote in the House, possibly Tuesday.

But the House voted last year to permit retail liquor sales in communities that approve, and House Speaker Doug Mays, R-Topeka, predicted the chamber would reject the pending bill. House rejection would return the question to the Senate.

If the session ends this year without approval of any bill on the issue, communities that already permit Sunday sales could continue to do so — and others could follow suit.

Legislators are trying to rewrite the state’s Liquor Control Act, in response to a March 2003 ruling by the Kansas Supreme Court that said some of its provisions applied only to selected cities and counties.

Given that lack of uniformity, the court said, communities could exempt themselves from parts of the act by using their home rule authority. Wyandotte County and 14 cities have done just that, exempting themselves from the Sunday sales prohibition.

The House and Senate have generally agreed that the act must be rewritten to apply uniformly to all communities, so that cities and counties don’t exercise additional exemptions — for example, from the state’s legal drinking age.

But they differ on what the act should say about Sunday sales, which remained the sticking point in negotiations over a final version of the bill. Negotiators agreed Monday to submit the Senate’s no-Sunday-sales position to a House vote.

“The choice becomes clear,” said Sen. Pete Brungardt, R-Salina, his chamber’s lead negotiator. “Which do you value more? Uniformity or Sunday sales?”

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Alcohol uniformity is SB 305 and SB 2.