Ask Governor Schwarzenegger to Veto AB 417
Anheuser-Busch's back-room tactics rushed AB 417 through the California legislature to protect its profits on kid-friendly alcopops. Governor Schwarzenegger promised to veto bills passed “in the middle of the night.” Ask him to veto AB 417 to protect kids, raise as much as $40.5 million in state revenue and keep his commitment to “clean up Sacramento.”
Contact the Governor now!
Anheuser-Busch, the original source of AB 417, gave $2.7 million to influence public policy in California from 2000-2005. Using this influence, beer makers have rushed a bill through the State Legislature that would change the state's definition of beer and help guarantee that “alcopops” remain the beverage of choice among teen girls.
If this measure is signed into law, these sweet, bubbly drinks, also known as flavored malt beverages (including Smirnoff Ice, Mike's Hard Lemonade, and Skyy Blue), will continue to be taxed at the low rate used for beer even though they contain alcohol from distilled spirits. The change would also mean that these "girlie beers" or "cheerleader drinks” would continue to be sold in convenience stores and delis - greatly increasing their availability to young people.
In order to avoid public scrutiny of this major policy change, the bill's sponsors abruptly altered an unrelated bill that had cleared several legislative hurdles--a tactic known as “gut and amend”. Greg Aghazarian, the leading recipient of alcohol industry donations in the Assembly, along with other politicians who receive contributions1 from Big Alcohol, then rushed the bill through the Assembly and Senate. Now it has landed on the Governor's desk with no public inquiry or debate.
What would a fair and democratic hearing of this issue have revealed? The alcohol industry has been illegally selling alcopops as beer, even though they are distilled spirits under current law. According to an
American Medical Association study (pdf), alcopops are popular among underage youth, particularly teenage girls. Taxing alcopops as distilled spirits rather than beer would generate up to $40.5 million a year in tax revenue and help reduce underage drinking. More details are available in a briefing paper(pdf)2 by Jim Mosher and from the AMA3.
Excerpts
- As a candidate for Governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger “vowed as governor to veto any bill that did not get a full public hearing in each house -- a promise directed at the spate of ‘gut-and-amend’ measures that crop up at the end of each legislative session and sometimes pass with little or no public scrutiny.”--Sacramento Bee, September 19, 2003.
- “Schwarzenegger said that he will not sign any bill that has not received a full public hearing before the policy committees of both the Assembly and the Senate. Schwarzenegger said the policy is aimed at ending the long-standing process of ‘gut and amend’ in the Legislature--when a bill's content is erased, replaced with new language, and brought to a vote with no public hearing or public comment.
- Nearly 400 bills were amended during the last week of this year's session," Schwarzenegger said. ‘Bills are passed in a rush, in the middle of the night. There is no such thing as democracy in the dark.’" ---Los Angeles Times, September 19, 2003.
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