STAND. COM. REP. NO.  528-16

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2016

RE:   H.B. No. 2400

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Transportation, to which was referred H.B. No. 2400 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CIGARETTE SHIPPING LABELS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to update shipping container labeling and notice requirements for cigarettes to reflect current Hawaii laws prohibiting the sale of cigarettes to persons under the age of twenty-one.

The Department of Taxation testified in support of this measure.  The Tax Foundation of Hawaii provided comments.

     On January 1, 2016, Hawaii became the first state in the nation to prohibit sales of tobacco products to anyone under twenty-one years of age.  This was done as part of the State's comprehensive tobacco control efforts to reduce tobacco use among Hawaii's youth.  Prior to this change in the law, labeling requirements for cigarette shipping containers referenced the legal age to purchase cigarettes as being eighteen.  Your Committee finds that this age reference must be corrected to correlate with current Hawaii law.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2400 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

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

____________________________

HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair