Council suspends Sunday blue laws

Aiken County Council voted 7-2 Tuesday in favor of suspending blue laws, which limit Sunday sales and store hours, but the change will not be effective immediately.

Councilman Eddie Butler offered up an amendment asking that the implementation date be moved back to Sept. 13 in order to give stores time to make adjustments to staff and the like.

The amendment passed unanimously, and there was no discussion before the final vote was taken.

The voting dynamic was the same Tuesday as when Council heard second reading of the ordinance proposing repeal of the blue laws at its July 21 meeting.

Butler, Willar Hightower, Charles Barton, Ronnie Young, Chuck Smith, Scott Singer and Kathy Rawls voted for the repeal. Council members Gary Bunker and LaWana McKenzie voted against.

"The fundamental issue for me is allowing people to go to church without the pressure of the market coming down on top of them," Bunker said. "It's a shame. We're losing part of our Southern tradition, our western Christian inheritance."

Calvary Chapel of Aiken Pastor Bob Laube wrote in an e-mail last week that suggested that changing blue laws will only affect churchgoers if they want to attend worship services but will now be forced to work.

"They would not be able to attend. But those who don't normally attend I don't think it would," he wrote.

Both the County ordinance repealing blue laws and state law recognizes that no person conscientiously opposed to Sunday work should be required to work and any such employee has the option to refuse to work on Sunday, yet some still question how strenuously an employee's wishes will be honored.

Proponents argued that valuable sales tax dollars, which benefit the public school system, are lost every Sunday when Aiken County residents cross the river into Georgia to shop before 1:30 p.m.

Schools now look to retail sales tax as a revenue stream ever since S.C. Act 388 altered property tax law so that schools no longer benefit from those dollars.

Both the Greater Aiken Chamber of Commerce and the North Augusta Chamber of Commerce gave their support to the repeal early in the game, and said that permitting unrestricted Sunday sales would be a step in the right direction to provide much needed revenue to support this area's school children.

Greater Aiken Chamber President and CEO J. David Jameson said in an interview last week that the impact of the repealed blue laws will be much clearer one year from now at least.

He said stores will not be able to look at sales receipts on Oct. 13, a month after the repeal goes into affect, and say whether the impact is good or bad.

Stores will not be forced to open or change their operating hours on Sunday if they do not wish to do so. PetSmart has already reported it will open earlier at 10 a.m.

For additional coverage of the repeal, check Thursday's edition of the Aiken Standard.