Sunday liquor sales in Minnesota are once again a no-go after the House rejected a measure that would have allowed cities or counties to decide whether to allow their liquor stores to open on that day.

The House voted 57-75 Tuesday against the amendment presented by Rep. Jenifer Loon, R-Eden Prairie, as part of the omnibus liquor bill. The House also rejected a second, similar amendment by Rep. Steve Drazkowski, R-Mazeppa, would have allowed municipalities to decide on Sunday sales, but limit hours from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. That vote was 48-84.

Without the Sunday sales amendment, the House passed the Senate's omnibus liquor bill 127-4. The bill includes Sunday growler sales and the so-called "Bloody Mary Bill," which allows bars and restaurants to sell alcohol at 8 a.m. on Sundays rather than 10 a.m.

Sunday sales proponents were initially optimistic that a political power shift, including support from House Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, could change this year's outcome. Although the effort failed, the votes were significantly closer in the House than a 106-21 vote in 2013.

Drazkowski, a vocal proponent of Sunday sales, argued that it's an issue of free markets.

"Banning alcohol sales on Sundays, which our current law does, makes about as much sense as banning the sale of chickens on Mondays, gas on Tuesdays or shoes on Wednesdays," he said. "It makes no sense."

As the Sunday liquor sales debate is near-perennial, so were the arguments, with backers repeatedly referencing the number of Minnesota license plates in liquor store parking lots across state lines, and detractors, like Rep. Joe Atkins, DFL-Inver Grove Heights, who proposed a symbolic amendment allowing local control over fireworks sales to argue that states should regulate the sales of certain products. Atkins voluntarily withdrew his amendment.

Rep. Jack Considine, DFL-Mankato, was the lone member to stand in clear opposition to Sunday sales.

"I have spoken to all the liquor store owners in Mankato and the area, and I have yet to find a single one that supports it," Considine said. "To me, this looks like an all-out assault on mom and pop liquor stores."

Debate on the measure was brief, with much of the focus a number of amendments, including those by Rep. Phyllis Kahn, DFL-Minneapolis,that would have allowed 18-20 year-olds to buy alcohol in certain situations, and Rep. Ron Erhardt, DFL-Minneapolis, that would have also allowed Sunday auto sales. That amendment was ruled not germane, while Kahn's amendment was rejected 113-19.

The vote comes two weeks after the Minnesota Senate voted 35-28 against a repeal of the Sunday sales ban, and means another victory for the Minnesota Licensed Beverage Association, the lobby representing many liquor store owners who oppose a repeal, saying big-box competition would force them to open Sundays, increasing overhead costs but not profits. Sunday sales proponents say the repeal would only give liquor stores the option to open Sundays.