STAND. COM. REP. NO.469

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 800

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 800 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SUBSTANCE ABUSE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to divert a portion of liquor and tobacco tax collections to the mental health and substance abuse special fund to be used for substance abuse services.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the American Heart Association, the Coalition for a Tobacco Free Hawaii, and the Community Alliance on Prisons. The Department of Budget and Finance, the Department of Taxation, and the Wine Institute submitted testimony in opposition to this measure. The Tax Foundation of Hawaii submitted comments.

Your Committee finds that the State had made a conscious choice to allow the sale of two known drugs and carcinogens, liquor and tobacco, while prohibiting others. Due to their inherently harmful qualities, the State has also felt justified imposing special taxes on these two products.

Since these two drugs are readily available, their use and abuse has led to many health, emotional, economic, and social problems in our State. One of the most alarming problems stems from abuse of liquor or tobacco, which are severely addictive.

While your Committee believes that the mental health and substance abuse programs administered by the Department of Health are effective, those programs continually suffer from lack of funding. Your Committee finds that it makes perfect sense to partially fund those programs with the taxes collected on sales of the products that create their necessity.

Your Committee amended this measure to direct that 25 per cent of the amount collected from each tax be diverted toward substance abuse programs. By diverting a percentage, rather than a specific sum, the amount deposited into the mental health and substance abuse special fund will always be proportional to the amount of liquor and tobacco consumed in the State.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 800, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 800, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair