Marin Institute

California Assembly Bill 1019, the Alcohol-Related Services Act, would have imposed the equivalent of a 10-cent fee on every alcoholic drink served in California and raise $1.44 billion per year to help offset the billions in public money lost to alcohol-related harm.

Would have.

AB 1019 died the first week of 2010 without making it out of its first committee. The bill needed 10 yes votes from the 19 members of the Assembly Health Committee to keep it alive. It only received 5. (You can view a complete list of the certified vote at the end of this article.)

This doghouse blog is devoted to the Five Abstainers of AB 1019 who killed the bill:

• Hector De La Torre (Dem-50)
• Marty Block (Dem-78)
• Pedro Nava (Dem-35)
• V. Manuel Perez (Dem-80)
• Mary Salas (Dem-79)

Why these five Democrats chose to abstain is not clear, but by abstaining they killed the bill.

AB 1019 was authored by Jim Beall, D-San Jose, sponsored by Marin Institute, and supported by a new state-wide Charge for Harm Alliance. Raising revenue by charging for alcohol-related harm is a concept that enjoys widespread public support (a recent Public Policy Institute of California poll found 85 percent of respondents supported additional levies on alcohol).

California legislators know full well that abstaining, which may seem to you and me like do-nothing politics, in fact does a lot: it kills the bill, it protects their voting record, and most importantly, it enhances their political fundraising efforts with corporate campaign donors.

Abstaining on a bill is the equivalent of Pleading the Fifth in many ways. Sure, abstaining is a right all legislators have, just as each citizen has the right to not self-incriminate, but doing so will nevertheless make everyone else wonder what the abstainer/pleader is hiding--or stands to lose (or gain).

While abstaining may have killed AB 1019, Jim Beall remains undeterred. "They've given me a bloody nose," Beall said after the vote. "But I'm going to wipe it off and come back in a few weeks with something different." And Marin Institute will again support Mr. Beall's effort to create an Alcohol Related Services Program. In the meantime, we hope that by raising a collective eyebrow, future "abstainers" will reconsider their voting strategies when a new Charge for Harm bill comes before them.

How assemblymembers voted on 1/5/10 on AB 1019 in the Assembly Health Committee:

YES

• Jones (D)
• Ammiano (D)
• De Leon (D)
• Lowenthal (D)
• Skinner (D)

NO

• Adams (R)
• Emmerson (R)
• Gaines (R)
• Conway (R)
• Hall (D)
• Hayashi (D)
• Fuentes (D)
• Strickland (R)

ABSTAINED

• Block (D)
• De La Torre (D)
• Nava (D)
• V. Perez (D)
• Salas (D)

ABSENT

• Fletcher (R)