BILL NUMBER: HR 28INTRODUCED BILL TEXT INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hall MAY 14, 2012 Relative to California Beer Distributor Month. LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST HOUSE OR SENATE RESOLUTIONS DO NOT CONTAIN A DIGEST WHEREAS, With the passage of the 21st Amendment to the United States Constitution, California's beer distributors have been licensed and regulated under the state-based, three tier system that provides traceability, transparency, and accountability in alcohol taxation and regulation in the United States. Our system of distribution is unmatched by any other country in the world for bringing consumers unsurpassed choice and value. It has produced an open and orderly market that maximizes brand and price competition, encourages independent wholesale distribution that removes barriers to new malt beverage entry, promotes efficient and responsible service to all licensed retailers, and protects consumers from counterfeit or adulterated products that are commonly found outside the United States; and WHEREAS, California's beer distributors can buy from many brewers and importers for sale and distribution to supply a diverse portfolio of local, regional, national, and internationally sourced beers to all licensed retailers. Distributors provide the infrastructure to meet the retailer's need for an efficient, point of contact system for delivery of a vast multiplicity of brands and meet the brewer's infrastructure need for widespread distribution, thus giving consumers over 13,000 brand choices from megabrands to craft-brewed micros and imports at competitive prices; and WHEREAS, California's beer distributors are among the state's leading employers. Located in the state's 58 counties, beer distributors contribute nine hundred thirty-one million six hundred sixty-eight thousand one hundred fourteen dollars ($931,668,114) annually to California's economy in direct wages and health care benefits to their 11,743 employees; and WHEREAS, California's beer distributors are primarily family businesses spanning three-generations with a long-term commitment to expanding the economic and civic vibrancy of their communities and to growing an ever stronger family business for the benefit of their employees and future generations; and WHEREAS, California's beer distributors are investing millions in alternative energy technologies to reduce their carbon footprint in their warehouses, on our roads, and in the marketplace to improve our environment. Beer distributors' warehouses are powered by solar energy systems, hybrid and flex fuel vehicles are an integral part of their fleet mix, and energy efficient refrigeration keeps the beer chilled. Lighting retrograde programs in warehouses use motion-activation to turn the lights on when it is time to load beer and use skylights and fluorescent lights to cut electrical consumption; and WHEREAS, California beer distributors are also promoting sustainable solutions through the recycling of plastic and cardboard packaging waste and sourcing vendors to purchase the baled used shrink-wrap and cardboard. These conservation practices have reduced the use of energy and raw materials and have minimized the amounts of waste going to California's landfills; and WHEREAS, California benefits from a single point-of-contact, the beer distributor, to make sure that taxes and the California Redemption Value (CRV) on beverage containers are collected. California beer distributors are the link to beverages brought in from out-of-state that need to be tracked back to the point of manufacture for state tax purposes. Beer distributors create a paper trail for tracing sales and ensuring the full collection of all sales, excise taxes, and CRV; and WHEREAS, Most importantly, because of California beer distributors, the public is assured of product safety. The motivation to counterfeit exists in the United States but is not present here because of the beer distributors' ability to track the product from one point, one source, and if beer should ever be adulterated, the ability to rapidly account for and retrieve the product from the retail shelf; now, therefore, be it Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, That the Assembly hereby proclaims May 2012, as California Beer Distributor Month; and be it further Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author appropriate distribution.