Photo by Dave Newman

Drink up, D.C.—the budget could use those tax dollars. As part of his 2013 budget rolled out today, Mayor Vince Gray proposed that hours for liquor sales at bars, restaurants and stores be extended.

Under Gray’s proposal, bars would be allowed to extend weekday and weekend hours by an hour—booze could be sold until 3 a.m. on weekdays and 4 a.m. on weekends—while liquor stores could start selling at 7 a.m. Monday through Saturday. (You could also buy beer and wine at the grocery store starting at 7 a.m. on Sundays.) Additionally, a presidential inauguration weekend would be established for 2013 and 2017—there was one in 2008—that would allow bars to stay open until 4 a.m. and give restaurants the ability to serve customers 24 hours a day.

All told, the changes, which would take effect in October if they passed the D.C. Council, could bring in $5.3 million for the city in 2013. (That’s a small portion of the $172 million budget deficit, $69.4 million of which was closed through “revenue initiatives.”) The presidential inauguration alone would net D.C. coffers a shade over $750,000, less than what the city collected for President Obama’s 2008 inauguration. (Read into that what you will—apparently fewer people will be partying for a second Obama term or a first Romney or Santorum term.)

This isn’t the first time that D.C. has tweaked its liquor sales hours, nor is it the only jurisdiction to do so in the quest for ever-scarcer tax dollars. As part of Gray’s 2012 budget, the tax on alcohol went from nine to 10 percent and hours at stores were extended and bars and restaurants were allowed to start serving earlier in the morning.

There’s likely to be something of a fight from residents who don’t relish longer nights of drinking near their homes, but Gray administration officials stressed that existing voluntary agreements between bars and ANCs would remain in effect. Another complaint could be that this would push weekend drinking hours past closing time for Metro, which is 3 a.m. during the weekend.