BILL ANALYSIS
SB 825
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Date of Hearing: July 8, 2009
ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATION
Joe Coto, Chairman
SB 825 (Committee on G.O.) - As Amended: May 4, 2009
SENATE VOTE : 36-0
SUBJECT : Alcoholic beverages: liquor licenses: protests:
prohibitions: refilling distilled spirits containers.
SUMMARY : This bill is the annual committee bill that makes
non-controversial and code maintenance changes to the Alcoholic
Beverage Control Act (Act). Specifically, this bill :
1)Deletes reference to "federal tax stamps" which have not been
required for over 20 years.
2)Makes clarifying and conforming changes to an existing
provision of law pertaining to notification requirements and
the submission of protests to the Department of Alcoholic
Beverage Control (ABC) regarding an application for an alcohol
license.
EXISTING LAW :
1)Establishes ABC and grants it exclusive authority to
administer the provisions of the Act in accordance with laws
enacted by the Legislature. This involves licensing
individuals and businesses associated with the manufacture,
importation and sale of alcoholic beverages in this state and
the collection of license fees or occupation taxes for this
purpose.
2)Contains various provisions regulating the labeling and
containers of alcoholic beverages within the state, including
a provision prohibiting, as a misdemeanor, the refilling or
causing to be refilled with distilled spirits any distilled
spirits package to which a tax stamp has been affixed
evidencing the payment of United States internal revenue
taxes.
3)Provides that protests against the issuance of a liquor
license may be filed with ABC.
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4)Permits ABC to reject protests, except protests made by a
public agency, public official, or governing body of a city or
county, it determines to be false, frivolous, vexatious, or
without reasonable or probable cause.
5)Requires ABC to notify the appropriate sheriff, chief of
police, district attorney, city or county planning agency, and
legislative body of an application for the issuance or
transfer of a liquor license, and prohibits ABC from issuing
or transferring a license until at least 30 days after these
notices are provided.
6)Authorizes ABC to extend that 30-day period for a period not
to exceed an additional 20 days if a proper written request is
made by any local law enforcement agency.
FISCAL EFFECT : Unknown.
COMMENTS :
Purpose of this bill : SB 825 bill is intended to be the vehicle
to make various technical corrections, deletions and
non-controversial changes to the ABC Act. Specifically, this
bill:
1. Modifies the Act to delete reference to tax stamps on liquor
bottles. Current law prohibits the refilling or causing to be
refilled with distilled spirits any distilled spirits package to
which a tax stamp has been affixed evidencing the payment of
United States internal revenue taxes. Federal tax stamps are no
longer used on liquor bottles so referencing containers that
have them is no longer appropriate. The ability of ABC to take
action against licensees who refill with a different brand or
marry smaller quantities of one brand into a single container of
the same brand will still be unlawful. Removing the obsolete
reference to the tax stamp would be technical and
nonsubstantive.
2. Modifies current law relating to protest timeframes for the
issuance of a liquor license to parallel existing provisions of
law relating to local government review timeframes for the
issuance or transfer of an alcoholic beverage license.
Essentially, Section 24013 of the Business and Professions has
been amended several times over the years to make changes in
ABC's public notification requirements to public officials and
SB 825
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to allow extended time periods for their input. The clear
intent of these prior amendments was to allow additional time
for submission of protests to ABC. However, Section 24013,
which specifically defines protest timeframes, was not amended
to be reflective. The proposed change is completely
non-controversial and, in fact, conforms to existing practices
of ABC and its allied local agencies.
Related Legislation : SB 415 (Oropeza), 2009-10 Session, expands
the eligibility list of local government officials who may
request an extension of time to review the issuance or transfer
of an alcoholic beverage license and lengthens the existing
extension period from 20 to 30 days.
REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION :
Support
None on file
Opposition
None on file
Analysis Prepared by : Eric Johnson / G. O. / (916) 319-2531