Report Title:

Intoxicating Liquor

Description:

Clarifies that each registered voter has one vote and each property owner has one vote, for purposes of liquor license denial law.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	1558
TWENTY-FOURTH LEGISLATURE, 2007
STATE OF HAWAII

A BILL FOR AN ACT

RELATING TO INTOXICATING LIQUOR.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

     SECTION 1.  Section 281-59, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (a) to read as follows:

     "(a)  Upon the day of hearing, or any adjournment thereof, the liquor commission shall consider the application and any protests and objections to the granting thereof, and hear the parties in interest.  The liquor commission shall accept all written or oral testimony for or against the application whether the application is denied, refused, or withdrawn.  Within fifteen days after the hearing, or within thirty days thereafter if in its discretion the commission extends the fifteen days to thirty days, and gives public notice of same, the commission shall give its decision granting or refusing the application; provided that if a majority of the:

     (1)  Registered voters for the area within five hundred feet of the nearest point of the premises for which the license is asked; or

     (2)  Owners and lessees of record of real estate and owners of record of shares in a cooperative apartment within five hundred feet of the nearest point of the premises for which the license is asked;

have duly filed or caused to be filed their protests against the granting of the license, or if there appears any other disqualification under this chapter, the application shall be refused.  Otherwise, the commission may in its discretion grant or refuse the same.

     [For purposes of defining "a majority of the owners and lessees of record of real estate and owners of record of shares in a cooperative apartment", each property counts only once.  A protest submitted by the majority of the co-owners or the majority of the co-lessees of a property shall constitute a protest by all the owners or lessees of record of that property.  Owners or lessees who own more than one property may count each property.]  Each registered voter shall receive one protest vote, and the owner or lessee of real estate shall receive one protest vote without regard to the number of properties owned or leased by that owner or lessee."

     SECTION 2.  Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken.  New statutory material is underscored.

     SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

INTRODUCED BY:

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