By Khalida Sarwari
The California State Assembly Committee on Health will consider at a hearing on Tuesday a new bill that a San Jose assemblyman says would require the alcohol industry to take financial responsibility for problems caused by alcohol.
If passed, Assembly Bill 1019, the Alcohol Related Services Act, introduced in March by Assemblyman Jim Beall, D-San Jose, would generate $1.4 billion to help mitigate the $38 billion subsidized annually by state residents on alcohol-related accidents, deaths, injuries, trauma costs, treatment, law enforcement and criminal justice expenses, according to Beall.
The proposal has been amended to require alcohol distributors to pay a fee equivalent to 10 cents per 1.5-ounce serving of distilled spirits, 5-ounce glass of wine and 12-ounce glass of beer.
The last state increase in alcohol fees was in 1991.
A news conference will be held Monday at 10 a.m. at the State Capitol in Sacramento, in advance of the first committee hearing.
Speakers alongside Beall will include Bruce Livingston, executive director of the Marin Institute, Sue LeMay, an advocate who lost her son in an alcohol-related car crash, Osbaldo Chavez, a community specialist who was convicted and incarcerated for alcohol- and drug-related crimes, and Leandra Ybarra, a high school student who nearly died from binge drinking at the age of 15.