BILL NUMBER: SB 791	CHAPTERED  09/01/99

	CHAPTER   288
	FILED WITH SECRETARY OF STATE   SEPTEMBER 1, 1999
	APPROVED BY GOVERNOR   AUGUST 31, 1999
	PASSED THE SENATE   AUGUST 23, 1999
	PASSED THE ASSEMBLY   AUGUST 16, 1999
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JULY 13, 1999
	AMENDED IN ASSEMBLY   JUNE 14, 1999
	AMENDED IN SENATE   MAY 6, 1999
	AMENDED IN SENATE   APRIL 7, 1999

INTRODUCED BY   Senators Perata, Chesbro, Johannessen, and Monteith
   (Coauthors:  Assembly Members Cardoza and Strom-Martin)

                        FEBRUARY 25, 1999

   An act to amend Section 23320.6 of the Business and Professions
Code, relating to alcoholic beverages.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SB 791, Perata.  Wine safety fund.
   Existing law requires each licensed winegrower or wine blender and
each importer of wine to pay to the Department of Alcoholic Beverage
Control prescribed annual fees, to be repealed as of January 1,
2000, to be deposited in the Wine Safety Fund for the purposes of
better enabling the State Department of Health Services to carry out
and supervise a testing program to ensure that levels of lead in wine
sold in this state remain within applicable tolerances.
   This bill would specify that the costs of the testing program that
the fees are required to cover shall include the reimbursement for
the wholesale cost of any wine tested.
   The bill would express the intent of the Legislature to
appropriate the moneys in the Wine Safety Fund in equal amounts of
$55,300 over 5 years to the State Department of Health Services for
purposes of the testing program.


THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:


  SECTION 1.  Section 23320.6 of the Business and Professions Code is
amended to read:
   23320.6.  (a) The Wine Safety Fund is hereby created as a special
fund in the State Treasury, in trust, to the State Department of
Health Services for the purpose of providing funds to better enable
its Food and Drug Branch to carry out and supervise a statistically
valid testing program to ensure that levels of lead in wine sold in
this state remain safe and within tolerances established by
applicable laws and regulations, for the health and safety of the
consuming public upon appropriation by the Legislature in the annual
Budget Act.  The fees collected pursuant to Section 23320.7 shall be
sufficient to cover, but shall not exceed, the costs of administering
the testing program, including the reimbursement of any importer or
retailer for the wholesale cost of any wine tested, conducted
pursuant to this section.  All moneys collected under Section
23320.7, including any interest accrued thereon, shall be deposited
in the Wine Safety Fund.
   (b) It is the intent of the Legislature to appropriate moneys in
the Wine Safety Fund in equal amounts of fifty-five thousand three
hundred dollars ($55,300) over five years to the State Department of
Health Services for expenditure exclusively for the purposes set
forth in subdivision (a).