STAND. COM. REP. NO. 209
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2005
RE: H.B. No. 573
H.D. 1
Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twenty-Third State Legislature
Regular Session of 2005
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 573 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TOBACCO,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this bill is to protect the children of the State from using tobacco products.
Specifically, this bill requires retailers of cigarettes and other tobacco products to acquire a retail tobacco permit from the Department of Taxation and sets permit fees. The bill also provides for: criminal penalties for the retail sale of cigarettes or other tobacco products without a valid retail tobacco permit; and the seizure and forfeiture of cigarettes and other tobacco products sold, possessed, acquired, distributed, or transported without a valid retail tobacco permit.
Your Committee received testimony in support of this bill from the Departments of the Attorney General, Health, and Taxation, the Hawaii Medical Service Association, the American Lung Association of Hawaii, the American Heart Association, the American Cancer Society Hawaii Pacific, Inc., and the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii. Testimony opposing the amount of the registration and annual renewal fees and the requirements on record keeping was received from the Hawaii Food Industry Association.
Your Committee finds that the bill provides added protection for the children of the State to help prevent them from using tobacco products. However, your Committee wishes to note that the offense of unlawful tobacco retailing in the first degree created in section 245-2.6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as a class C felony, especially in light of limited prison facilities, may be excessive as it may involve incarceration for up to a maximum of five years. Your Committee respectfully suggests that your Committee on the Judiciary address this issue.
Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this bill by:
(1) Making blank, in section 245-2.5(c), the amount of the:
(A) Fee for a retail tobacco permit; and
(B) Fee for a duplicate permit;
(2) Deleting, in section 245-2(b), the $2.50 license fee and inserting a blank amount in its place;
(3) Deleting section 6 of the bill making an appropriation of $37,000 for three full-time positions;
(4) Making blank the appropriated amounts in sections 7 and 8 of the bill;
(5) Appropriately re-numbering the sections of the bill; and
(6) Changing the effective date of the bill to provide that sections 6 and 7 shall take effect on July 1, 2005.
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 H.B. No. 573, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 573, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Health,
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____________________________ DENNIS A. ARAKAKI, Chair |
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