20 for 20: Sunday Liquor Sales (2017)

To celebrate our 20th anniversary of Lakeland News, we’re taking a look back at some of the memorable local stories we’ve covered over the years. We’re calling it 20 For 20 – twenty stories in all, one for each of the twenty years we’ve been on the air with Lakeland News.

In the spring of 2017, the state legislature approved a bill that allowed for the sale of alcohol from liquor stores on Sundays in Minnesota. Governor Mark Dayton signed the bill, and on July 2nd, liquor stores across the state opened on Sunday for the first time since Minnesota became a state in 1858. Reporter Mal Meyer recapped the historic occasion for us.

The impact on specific liquor stores has varied, but overall, liquor, beer, and wine tax receipts were up for the state during the first year of Sunday sales. The reporter who compiled that story, Mal Meyer, is now a reporter at WKBT-TV in La Crosse, Wisconsin.