An end to Prohibition? House passes bill to “bring Mississippi into the 21st Century”

Sarah Ulmer
·2 min read
2

Mississippi’s House of Representatives has passed a bill that would effectively remove prohibition from state law.

The bill – HB 777 – will automatically allow cities under 5,000 in population to sell liquor and wine. If the municipalities do not wish to do so, citizens can reverse the decision through the referendum process at the local level.

It has only been since 1966 that Mississippi repealed its statewide prohibition law – the last state to do so.

Current law now allows for counties to choose whether to be “wet or dry.” The terminology “wet and dry” refers to counties that allow liquor sales (wet) and those who do not (dry).

Stores of wine and alcohol await shipment at the Mississippi ABC warehouse, which is seeing record shipments during the coronavirus pandemic. State lawmakers are looking at ways to modernize the system. Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control
Stores of wine and alcohol await shipment at the Mississippi ABC warehouse, which is seeing record shipments during the coronavirus pandemic. State lawmakers are looking at ways to modernize the system. Mississippi Alcoholic Beverage Control

“When are we going to bring Mississippi into the 21st century? This bill is a small bite of the apple in opening our alcohol laws,” said Republican State Rep. Hank Zuber.

According to Zuber, Mississippi has under 30 counties out of its 82 that are still considered dry. Some of those counties are considered “semi” dry. Many cities inside those areas allow liquor sales. For instance, Rankin County in central Mississippi is a dry county, but the City of Brandon in Rankin allows the sale of liquor and wine.

Rep. Zuber said roughly 50 small cities would be impacted by the law.

The legislation would also give larger cities that are in a currently dry county the authority to hold a local vote to allow liquor sales.

Zuber went on to add that the big picture for this particular bill is that lawmakers continue working on the state’s public policy concerning alcohol. He added that the bill would not impact previously adopted policy for qualified resort areas across Mississippi.

Sales of wine and alcohol hit record levels in Mississippi during the coronavirus as people shopped for comfort and stress relief. State lawmakers are looking at ways to modernize the system. Sun Herald file
Sales of wine and alcohol hit record levels in Mississippi during the coronavirus as people shopped for comfort and stress relief. State lawmakers are looking at ways to modernize the system. Sun Herald file

Republican State Rep. Scott Bounds, who voted against the bill, said he wasn’t passionately opposed to the legislation but felt it would create more issues for small communities.

“I’m not necessarily against what this is doing, I’m just old school, I guess. It impacts so few cities, I just felt like we should leave the law the way it is and let them opt in instead of opting out,” said Bounds.

Cities and county seats in dry counties can currently opt into selling hard liquor with 20 percent of the municipality’s voters supporting a ballot referendum to have the issue placed before the public in a local election.

The House voted 93-21 to move HB 777 forward, sending it across the Capitol for consideration by the state Senate.