Debate over Texas liquor laws resurfaces

Should Texas lawmakers reconsider laws banning liquor sales on Sundays?

A "Boot the Ban" social media campaign by the Texas Hospitality Association brought the argument back into the spotlight this weekend.

During the Cowboys game Sunday they tweeted about the liquor law in Texas and it quickly became the talk of the town.

Thousands of people in Texas said they are sick of stocking up on alcohol ahead of time.

"Everybody stocks up on Saturdays and then on Mondays we refill," said Chris's Liquor Stores Manager Stephen King.

Texas is one of 12 states with a blue law that prevents people from purchasing liquor on Sunday.

"I think it would help retailers if they had the opportunity to choose what's best for their business plan and that's what we're trying to say is, 'Give them the option.' If it doesn't work for their business plan to be open on Sunday then certainly they don't have to be," said Texas Hospitality Association Legislative Consultant Todd Kercheval.

"I think they think it's going to increase sales. I question whether people are going to drink more liquor if we're open seven days a week," said Executive Director of the Texas Package Stores Association Lance Lively.

Lively said getting rid of the ban could end up backfiring on small business owners.

"They struggle every day to make payroll, to keep the lights on, adding a seventh day to the mix would mean overhead would go up, bills would go up, they'd have to hire more employees," said Lively.

King said that's exactly why he doesn't want the law to change.

"People can buy on Friday, Thursday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday… Sunday is not going to be a big difference," said King.

Will the debate make it to the Capitol this legislative session?

"Nothing is impossible at the Texas Legislature," said Kercheval.

"It's been up three legislative sessions, I think approximately at least three, so this'll be the fourth. So we anticipate that it will be back up," said Lively.

Kercheval said it depends on feedback, which they got plenty of this weekend.

"In laymen's terms it kind of blew up. We had lots of people tweeting, Facebooking, the whole nine yards just really in their support of, 'Why can't we go to the package store, the liquor store on Sunday and buy what we would like to?'" said Kercheval.

On average sales tax revenue increased about $7 million in other states that started selling liquor on Sundays.