When James Zander wants to buy a bottle of wine, he has to travel several miles from his DeSoto home to Duncanville. But the money he's spending there isn't going to support his fellow taxpayers in DeSoto.

With the faltering economy, Zander, who's leading the charge for beer and wine sales in DeSoto, said now is the time for change.

"Citizens realize now that the economics makes this a practical and good business decision," said Zander, who's assisting the group Economic Impact for DeSoto. "The whole goal of this is to allow our sales tax dollars to stay in our community to pay for our city services."

Many churches, however, are banding together to vote down the effort for the second time in two years.

"When you have freedoms to purchase, there are penalties you have to pay," said the Rev. Josef Rasheed, president of the DeSoto Ministerial Alliance and senior pastor of CrossRoads Covenant Church in DeSoto. "We will have to do the repairing based on the convenience."

As the economy has taken a downturn, city managers have had to find ways to fill deficits.

DeSoto leaders looked at what they were losing to neighboring Duncanville and Glenn Heights: sales tax from beer and wine.

Two years ago, voters turned down the sale of beer and wine by nearly 400 votes.

But the economic times have changed, proponents said.

"This is critical," said Mayor Bobby Waddle, who supports the measure. "It's not what's right or wrong about it, it's an economic tool that we need to take advantage of."

But Rasheed sees it differently. He said he has counseled church members who are alcoholics trying to put their lives back together. He also questioned whether alcohol sales would bring in enough revenue to pay for more police and the other problems he said alcohol brings.

"I've seen the destruction of drugs and alcohol in our city," he said.

Early voting ends today. Sunnyvale and Farmersville are also attempting to pass the sale of beer and wine. Fate is voting for liquor sales and the right to sell alcohol in restaurants.

In the 2007 local option election that failed, opponents included several churches including Hampton Road Baptist Church. Driving down DeSoto's corridors this week, several churches displayed "Vote Against" signs on their lawns although representatives said their churches didn't want to comment publicly or the pastors couldn't be reached for comment.

Waddle said he's concerned that DeSoto residents are spending their dollars in neighboring cities to purchase beer and wine. According to a customer analysis survey by Buxton, a Fort Worth retail consulting firm, DeSoto residents spent $23 million on beer and wine sales. That's close to $500,000 per year in sales tax receipts that DeSoto could be generating from beer and wine, proponents said.

The number of foreclosed homes in DeSoto is rising, and the city had to cover an $800,000 deficit last budget cycle, Waddle said. City leaders didn't have to cut staff or services, but local option proponents say beer and wine sales will help jump-start the local economy.

In 2003, Duncanville voters approved the sale of beer and wine. Waddle said when Glenn Heights voters approved alcohol sales last year, he grew concerned.

"Everybody's here at our back door," he said.

The mayor said he didn't want to see grocery stores closing or moving to a neighboring city.

"If you lose one of those, there's little or no chance they'll come back," he said.

Both Zander and Waddle said they respect the opposing viewpoint, but when it comes to dollars and cents, they want to see more for the city.

"The world's not going to end, but from an economic standpoint it would be a blow to the city," Waddle said. "At least let's make that conscious decision, and if it doesn't go, let's just prepare to suffer the consequences."