STAND. COM. REP. 790

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1114

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1114 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TOBACCO,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to:

(1) Improve the State's ability to collect settlement moneys under the tobacco master settlement agreement, by increasing the ability of the Attorney General (AG) to diligently enforce chapter 675, Hawaii Revised Statutes (HRS); and

(2) Improve the ability of the AG to enforce the cigarette tax stamping and the "gray market," or export and foreign cigarette provisions of chapter 245, HRS.

The Department of the Attorney General testified in support of this bill.

Your Committee finds that this bill requires tobacco manufacturers to comply with newly established reporting requirements before they may stamp and sell cigarettes in this State. Under this bill, manufacturers must comply with the applicable tobacco laws, and report this compliance to the AG before they may stamp and sell cigarettes. Linking the ability to sell cigarettes with manufacturer reporting and compliance will encourage compliance and allow better enforcement of these laws.

This bill also enhances enforcement of tobacco laws and the ability to collect stamp tax revenues by increasing the range of tobacco distribution activities that fall within the gray market law, and amending the cigarette forfeiture provisions of the gray market statutes consistent with the forfeiture provisions of the stamp tax law.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Removing amendments that would have added "receive" and "acquire" to the definition of "distribute." Instead, your Committee has added "possess, keep, store, retain, transport, and offer to sell" to the activities that are unlawful with regard to export and foreign cigarettes, to clarify that one who receives or acquires these tobacco products at the end of the distribution chain falls within the prohibited conduct known as distribution; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1114, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1114, H.D. 1.

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

 

____________________________

ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair