SACRAMENTO, Calif.,
July 11, 2019 /PRNewswire/
-- Alcohol Justice and California Alcohol Policy Alliance
(CAPA) are expressing extreme disappointment today with the members
of the California State Assembly Governmental Organization
Committee (GO) who voted in favor of SB 58 – the 4 a.m. bar bill. They chose to support marginal
economic gains for nightlife businesses and ignore the extra harm
and cost incurred if trading hours are extended two hours.
The measure passed out of the GO committee by just one vote. The
official tally was 11 ayes, 5 noes, and 5 not voting - less
politically charged way of saying "no". Here's how they voted:
Voting Yes:
Aguiar-Curry (D-Winters), Berman (D-Palo Alto), Bonta (D-Alameda), Brough (R-Dana Point), Daly D-Anaheim), Eduardo
Garcia (D-Coachella),
Gipson (D-Carson), Gray (D-Merced), Jones-Sawyer (D-Los Angeles), Low (D-Campbell), Robert
Rivas (D-Hollister)
Voting No:
Cooley (D-Rancho Cordova), Lackey (R-Palmdale), Melendez (R-Lake Elsinore), Quirk-Silva (D-Fullerton), Salas (D-Bakersfield)
Not Voting:
Bigelow (R-O'Neals), Cooper
(D-Elk Grove), Gallagher
(R-Yuba City), Mathis
(R-Visalia), Blanca Rubio (D-Baldwin Park)
"I stand firmly against this bill," stated Assemblymember
Tom Lackey (r-Palmdale), GO Committee Member, Vice-Chair of
the California Assembly Public Safety Committee, and 28-year
veteran California Highway Patrol
Officer."The clear outcome of this particular bill will be
putting countless lives in danger. Drunk driving increases as the
night goes on. Research from the National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA) has shown that 54% of all traffic crashes
occur because of alcohol impairment after 2
a.m. But there are other factors we must consider. Having
spent 18 years as a CHP officer working these hours I have direct
knowledge of the tragedy that's associated when alcohol-impaired
driving is coupled with the extreme fatigue that we also see in
drivers between 2 and 4 a.m. Through
this legislation we will extend the hours of most danger and that
is terrible, reprehensible, abhorrent, scary and should be
denounced. If this bill becomes law, we are going to see countless
tragedies for the benefit of financial gain. Shame on us! If money
has become that powerful in our society, we really need to
re-evaluate what we are doing here."
The simple majority of the committee voted to approve the bill
despite receiving new evidence of the massive net social harm the
so-called "pilot project" would produce. They ignored the findings
in an analysis released Tuesday at press events at Los Angeles City Hall and the state capitol
steps in Sacramento, entitled the
"High Cost of the 4 A.M. Bar
Bill."
This first of its kind cost-benefit analysis detailing the
effects of changing state alcohol policy to allow later last call
at bars, restaurants, and clubs was done by the nationally
respected, 60 year-old, Oakland-based Alcohol Research Group
(ARG), a project of the Public Health Institute. Alcohol
Research Group found that should the bill become law the expected
social costs generated annually in the City of Los Angeles alone would be
$88–$354.5 million; while the additional revenue would only
be $36.5–$146.1 million. the
five-year trial period net social cost of harm in Los Angeles would minimally be $266.5 million. The analysis details the
social costs in percentages, including: Lost productivity,
illnesses, injuries and accidents - 72%; motor vehicle crashes,
early mortality, and crime – 28%.
"While we want our local businesses to thrive, no good can
come from serving alcohol until 4 a.m. If this passes, we can
expect more DUIs, more drunk driving injuries and more
alcohol-related deaths both inside the permitted jurisdictions and
their neighboring communities," stated Paul Koretz, Los
Angeles City Councilman. "The harms and costs will spread
across all of our road ways and communities forcing all
municipalities to pay the price for additional law enforcement, EMT
and other costs. From the release of the cost-benefit analysis, we
confirm that the revenue losses are much greater than
gains to any city that participates."
The "High Cost of the 4 A.M.
Bar Bill" was a response to the
one-sided narrative of revenue to the state, and local nightlife
economic development offered by Senator Scott Wiener, the author of SB 58. The bill,
Wiener's third attempt in three years to disrupt the protections of
a statewide uniform last call, would allow 10 cities in a so-called
"pilot program" the ability to extend hours of alcohol on sale
until 4 a.m.
"The GO Committee failed the people of California just as SB 58 fails to protect the
public health and safety of California residents and visitors by putting
private and corporate interests first," stated Veronica De Lara, Co-Chair of California Alcohol
Policy Alliance. "This bill does not acknowledge that increases
in alcohol-related harm will occur if hours of service are extended
two additional hours. This bill ignores current costs of
alcohol-related harm in the state of California and disregards the escalated costs
of alcohol related harm to individuals, consumers, families,
society and to the government."
"The author of SB 58 and other bill proponents are fond of
declaring that the bill will align California with at least 15 other states where
local jurisdictions have the authority to decide alcoholic beverage
service hours," stated Michael
Scippa, Public Affairs Director at Alcohol Justice. "This
disingenuous argument ignores the fact that some of those local
jurisdictions have actually rolled back last call times to reduce
alcohol-related harms and costs."
The "High Cost of the 4 A.M.
Bar Bill" disturbingly documents the
worst concerns of Alcohol Justice and CAPA that public health
and safety would be severely compromised if SB 58 becomes law.
Advocates for public health and safety throughout are convinces
this change in policy will not benefit the community but does
benefit private and corporate interests at great public
expense.
"It's a shame that the committee has chosen alcohol industry
profits over the health and safety of all
Californians," stated Ramon
Castellblanch, PhD., Professor Emeritus, San Francisco State University. "What more proof
do policy makers require to do the right thing?"
"The 'High Cost of the 4
A.M. Bar
Bill' authors, Drs.
Subbaraman and Kerr have shown beyond the shadow of a doubt that SB
58 hurts California
economically and puts resident lives at risk," said
Carson Benowitz-Fredericks, Research
Manager at Alcohol Justice. "They join dozens of peer-reviewed
researchers showing the same thing. It's maddening to see lawmakers
refuse to listen to science."
"Adding together the harms and revenue benefits for pilot
programs in 10 cities statewide yields a very conservative estimate
that over the five-year life of SB 58 California residents and government will
suffer $701.2 million in net social
cost. This is with a conservative estimate of 5% of bars,
restaurants and nightclubs in the ten pilot project cities moving
to 4 a.m. The true cost of SB 58 is
astronomical and the bill must be defeated," said Brenda Villanueva, Co-Chair of Los Angeles Drug
and Alcohol Policy Alliance (LADAPA).
Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nury
Martinez, added, "This bill ignores thousands of lives
lost and families torn apart by drunk driving in order to squeeze a
few more dollars out of our neighborhoods. There may be supporters
of SB 58 in Sacramento, but I am
not one of them. I applaud Alcohol Justice and Councilmember Paul
Koretz for standing up for our communities and telling the truth
about this terrible bill."
"Thanks to this report, we can put real numbers to SB 58's
public health and safety impact," said Sarah Blanche, Co-Chair, Los Angeles Drug and
Alcohol Policy Association (L.A.DAPA). "If the bill passes, the
report projects there will be an additional 3,200 DUIs in the
City of Los Angeles alone. Over 94
thousand additional ambulance trips will be necessary every year.
This kind of cost is unacceptable. SB 58 is dangerous for L.A. and
for the rest of California."
"Why allow two more hours of on-site alcohol use if we
already know the consequences? Pretending this policy is good for
our community is Misleading. Unfair. Unjust," stated
LGBTQ+ Caucus Member Maurina Cintron. "The data shows
that the LGBTQ community suffers disproportionately from alcohol
abuse. Help me understand why policy would be written without
any health concerns in mind. Why should we continue allowing Big
Alcohol to prey on our vulnerable communities? This policy
isn't something anyone in the LGBTQ or straight communities will
get a chance to vote on, so we need our local representatives to
speak up on our behalf. "
"I am a mother and grandmother from Koreatown, Westlake
and recently a resident of Pico Union," stated
Miriam Castro, Promotora. "As a
pedestrian, those of us who walk are exposed to everything on these
streets. I think that the social costs and loss of productivity
from illnesses, vehicle crashes, early mortality and crime need to
be acknowledged. The social cost of SB 58 will be more than the
benefits. The 'High Cost of the 4
A.M. Bar Bill' needs to be carefully considered by our
lawmakers. It clearly demonstrates that over the 5 year pilot
project period of extended alcohol sales until 4 a.m., the costs could be between $266 million and $1
billion in Los Angeles
alone!"
"As we sadly expected, Senator Wiener disrespected
every argument in favor of public health and safety in the Assembly
GO Committee hearing," stated Sonny
Skyhawk, actor, producer, citizen of the Rosebud
Sioux Tribe, founder of the American Indians in Film and
Television, and Alcohol Justice Board Member. "He discounted and
denied the new cost-benefit analysis, and all the peer-reviewed
science that exists. He did this to whitewash the extension of
on-sale hours as something beneficial to his precious 'nightlife.'
To that we continue to say all life is precious."
According to Centers for Disease Control-reviewed reports,
California already suffers
$35 billion in alcohol-related harm
every year, with 10,500 lives lost and hundreds of thousands of
additional injuries. Local and state governments share of this
grisly tab is a whopping $14.5
billion annually.
"With this disappointing committee vote, the state is moving
closer to creating a very dangerous policy change," said
Richard Zaldivar, founder and CEO of
the Wall Las Memorias Project, co-chair of CAPA, spokesperson for
the LGBTQ+ Caucus, and an Alcohol Justice Board Member. "This
change will economically benefit alcohol sellers in the epicenter
of nightlife entertainment districts while radiating increased
harms and costs to surrounding communities including many people of
color, the economically disadvantaged, and those identifying as
LGBTQ."
"SB 58, like last year's SB 905, and 2017's SB 384, is a
clumsy attempt by Senator Scott
Wiener to pull the wool over the eyes of the legislature by
pitching this as a so-called 'pilot project.' But don't be
fooled," stated Bruce Lee
Livingston, Executive Director / CEO of Alcohol Justice.
"SB 58 is nothing more than another greedy grab for more profits
by promoting binge drinking in the wee hours of the morning.
Alcohol Justice applauds those committee members who voted 'NO' and
those who stayed off the bill. We urge the rest of the Assembly to
do what the GO committee failed at and stop this dangerous
experiment."
The bill now faces an Appropriations Committee vote in August.
The public is encouraged to TAKE ACTION to #STOP4amBarBill by
texting JUSTICE to 313131
CONTACT: Michael Scippa 415
548-0492
Jorge Castillo 213 840-3336
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SOURCE Alcohol Justice