STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2587

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2549

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2549 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LIQUOR LICENSES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the liquor commissions to streamline procedures to provide for the issuance of temporary licenses for the sale of liquor for a period not to exceed one day for fundraising events by nonprofit organizations; and

(2) Remove, from the list of factors a liquor commission may consider when deciding on a previously denied, refused, or withdrawn liquor license application, language that allows any other considerations deemed by the liquor commission to affect the application, issuance, or exercise of a liquor license.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Mayor, Maui County; Maui County Councilmember Yuki Lei Sugimura; Merchant Horovitz, LLLC; and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Liquor Commission of the City and County of Honolulu.

Your Committees find that some nonprofit organizations have faced an extremely onerous process when attempting to obtain a one-day special liquor license for a fundraising event. Your Committees further find that applying the same liquor license procedures that are required of a commercial business to nonprofit organizations is unduly burdensome in time and money to the nonprofit organizations, many of whom operate on small budgets.

Accordingly, this measure provides for reduced submission requirements for the issuance of temporary liquor licenses for fundraising events by nonprofit organizations, which will streamline the temporary license process and reduce the burden on nonprofit organizations. This measure also removes, from the list of factors the liquor commission may consider when deciding on a previously denied, refused, or withdrawn liquor license application, language that allows any other considerations deemed by the liquor commission to affect the application, issuance, or exercise of a liquor license.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Authorizing a nonprofit organization that has been issued a temporary liquor license for a fundraising event the ability to auction off, at a live or silent auction, liquor in sealed or covered containers or services that provide liquor; and

(2) Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2549, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2549, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Health and Judiciary,

________________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair

________________________________ ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair