Bill Text: HI SB645 | 2013 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Liquor Tax

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 5-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2013-02-14 - Report adopted; Passed Second Reading and referred to WAM. [SB645 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2013-SB645-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 313

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 645

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 645 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HEALTH,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

     (1)  Repeal the general excise tax exclusion for dealers who hold a permit to sell liquor;

 

     (2)  Repeal the use tax exclusion on intoxicating liquor; and

 

     (3)  Amend the gallonage liquor taxes and designate a percentage of revenue from those taxes to be paid to the community health centers special fund and the trauma system special fund.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health, Hawai‘i Primary Care Association, Mothers Against Drunk Driving Hawaii, Ho‘ōla Lāhui Hawai‘i, and one individual.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States; Hawaii Food Industry Association; Creekside Lounge, Inc.; and Anheuser Busch Companies.

 

     Your Committee finds that almost half of all fatal traffic accidents in Hawaii involve an alcohol-impaired driver.  A number of studies have shown that increasing the cost of alcoholic beverages is the best way to reduce the incidence of alcohol-related traffic fatalities.  Your Committee further finds that studies have also shown that increasing the cost of alcoholic beverages lowers rates of cirrhosis, sexually-transmitted diseases, and other health risks.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 645 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,

 

		____________________________ JOSH GREEN, Chair