Senate Committee Strips Out Alcohol Regulation Provisions

A Senate panel voted Wednesday to get rid of proposed alcohol regulations that would have governed where alcohol is housed in stores and who’s legally allowed to ring it up.

Some advocates decry the elimination of what they call safeguards the same day the governor signed a bill expanding alcohol sales to Sundays.

The proposed bill would have required all cashiers conducting alcohol sales to be at least 21-years-old. But a Senate committee stripped out that provision.

Committee Chair Sen. Ron Alting (R-Lafayette) says it was unfair to sales clerks in stores across the state.

“Your job as a 19-year-old and a 20-year-old is completely eliminated,” Alting says.

But Indiana Coalition To Reduce Underage Drinking’s Lisa Hutcheson says as alcohol sales expand, safeguards are necessary.

“So while you may cheer and extoll the passage of Sunday sales today, we trust that you will have the same regard for prevention and public health when you have a chance to change this bill in conference committee,” Hutcheson says.

The bill also would have mandated all alcohol in grocery stores be limited to one section of the store. The committee eliminated that provision.

The measure now goes to the Senate floor.