Topeka ? Voters in 23 Kansas cities, including Lawrence, would go to the polls in November 2006 to decide if they want to continue Sunday liquor sales in their towns under a proposal recommended Tuesday by a House panel.

“It’s a mess that needs to be cleaned up,” said Rep. John Edmonds, R-Great Bend, chairman of the Federal and State Affairs Committee.

But Edmonds said he wasn’t sure of the bill’s chances during the wrap-up legislative session that starts today and is expected to end Saturday. A Senate proposal addressing Sunday sales and other liquor issues is vastly different.

“There is still a long ways to go on this and not a lot of time,” he said.

Under the committee proposal, voters in 23 cities, including Lawrence, would have elections on whether to reaffirm Sunday sales. In addition, cities without Sunday sales could have elections on whether to allow it.

Rep. Candy Ruff, D-Leavenworth, said the proposal would settle some liquor code issues and help Democratic candidates.

“Anytime you have a liquor issue on the ballot, it brings out more Democrats. I think Gov. Kathleen Sebelius would like this,” she said. Sebelius, a Democrat, is expected to run for re-election in 2006.

In Lawrence, Jason Schmidtberger, son of Joe Schmidtberger, the owner of Alvin’s Wines & Spirits, 905 Iowa, said his family would just as soon see Sunday sales go away.

He said the store handles the same sales volume as before Sunday sales, but now must stay open one more day a week.

“We’re not making any more money,” he said.

Sean Whittier, a clerk at Hird Retail Liquors, 601 Kasold Drive, predicted Lawrence voters would approve Sunday sales.

“The initial reaction from people after we opened on Sundays was that they were pretty happy with it,” Whittier said.

In addition to Lawrence, most of the cities with Sunday sales are near the Missouri border, which has had Sunday sales for years. Areas with Sunday sales, which include the 23 cities and Shawnee County, have a population of nearly 900,000.

Two years ago, the Kansas Supreme Court ruled that communities could opt out of the state Liquor Control Act, which bans Sunday sales, because the law wasn’t applied uniformly.

For example, the law set different requirements for different-sized cities to sell packaged liquor or whether alcohol could be consumed on airport authority property. A 1960 amendment to the Kansas Constitution says cities can exempt themselves from nonuniform state laws.

Since the court ruling, lawmakers have been wrangling over how to address it because some have feared that local governments may exempt themselves from other parts of the liquor law, such as the section setting the legal drinking age at 21.