INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — When Indiana House Republicans heard in March that Ricker’s convenience stores had found a way to get a license to sell cold beer for $1,000, perceptions started to collect against the chain in the General Assembly.

For the $1,000 cost of a license to operate as a restaurant, Ricker’s managed to get local and state approval to sell cold beer at its outlets in Columbus and Sheridan. The move was seen as a legal loophole since convenience stores are prohibited from selling cold beer.

“Once people started hearing the story that a $1,000 restaurant license suddenly became a multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars package liquor store license, essentially for a cold beer carryout and liquor carryout, as a principal business, there were a lot of minds that were changed in caucus,” House Speaker Brian Bosma, R-Indianapolis, said Thursday.

His comments followed a 40-8 vote in the Senate to approve a bill that states a convenience store, grocery or drug store should not be given a license that allows the sale of cold beer. It would also allow Ricker’s to continue to sell cold beer for carryout but only until its license comes up for renewal in one year; after that, it would have to prove that 60 percent of its sales are from alcoholic beverages consumed on site.

It is one of two bills moving through the Legislature that attempt to address the loophole. Both are facing trouble over consensus with the other chamber.

In the other, Senate Bill 358, amendments were added in the House on Wednesday that came out in Ricker’s favor. Ricker’s could hold onto and renew its permit unless it was revoked or suspended. However, the state Alcohol and Tobacco Commission would not be allowed to issue a new permit similar to Ricker’s until at least 2019. The chain operation, which has headquarters in Anderson, has 56 outlets in Indiana.

“This amendment in total simply pauses this issue by ensuring that no additional permits will be granted until the General Assembly can determine our policy in a thoughtful and deliberate manner and while allowing Ricker’s to continue operating,” Rep Tony Cook, R-Cicero, said.

On Thursday, the Senate bill was ready for a third reading in the House, but Rep. Ben Smaltz, R-Auburn, declined to call the version to the floor. He is the author of the similar House Bill 1496.

The debate has led House members to call for a summer committee to study alcohol permits.

On Tuesday, as word circulated about the study committee, Ricker’s posted to its Twitter page: “Check out how the Statehouse is finally admitting that Indiana’s liquor laws need an overhaul.”

On Thursday, Bosma held up a bound copy of state alcohol laws and said the study would have to deal with the complicated permit process and license fees.

“There are market issues where people have invested their retirement proceeds into a business by purchasing a $250,000 package store permit that was just devalued by a $1,000 restaurant permit being treated in the same fashion. It should have been dealt with at the ATC,” Bosma said.