Photo by Maryland Route 5

Councilmember Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) is faced with a quandary—he doesn’t like Mayor Vince Gray’s proposal to allow bars to stay open an extra hour, but if he wants to strip it from the 2013 budget, he needs to find some other way to make up for the money that the extended hours would bring into city coffers. He may have found a solution, though.

The Post reports that Graham is considering replacing the extended bar hours—under Gray’s proposal, bars would be able to stay open until 3 a.m. on weekdays and 4 a.m. on weekends—with Sunday liquor sales, which are currently forbidden:

D.C. Council member Jim Graham (D-Ward 1) said today he is likely to recommend allowing Sunday sales for holders of Class A (liquor store) licenses as part of the city budget. The additional $710,000 in sales tax revenue that would be generated by dropping the restriction would go some way toward the $3.2 million Graham needs to find to kill Mayor Vincent C. Gray’s proposal to extend bar hours as late as 4 a.m.

If Graham’s substitute came to pass, the city’s booze retailers would be the big winners in this year’s budget—Gray’s 2013 spending plan already includes a provision allowing supermarkets, corner stores and liquor stores to open two hours earlier than they’re currently allowed to.

It’s an interesting reversal for Graham, who only recently told former DCist editor-in-chief Aaron Morrissey that he didn’t foresee the city’s longstanding blue laws changing. (A 2012 proposal to allow Sunday sales went nowhere.) It’s also something of a pragmatic compromise—Graham knows that the city needs the money, but if it’s not going to get some of it from extended bar hours, it’s up to him to find another source of revenue. (D.C. faces a $172 million budget deficit for 2013, $69 million of which Gray has proposed be closed by “revenue initiatives.”)

That’s not to say that Sunday liquor sales are certain to happen. Just as some community groups opposed extending bar hours, others will come out against allowing people to buy liquor in D.C. on Sundays.

Montgomery County began allowing Sunday liquor sales in late November 2010, and Virginia state stores are open on Sundays.