H.B. 447 Tobacco Amendments: transcript

Thank you Mr. Chair and everybody for being here today. I know this is a tedious work. Uh, what you have before you is, uh, house Bill 4 47. I will point out there's a substitute and an amendment, and I'll very quickly talk about the amendment first. If I may. It simply adds to line 2 38 of the bill, uh, uh, item G further just strengthening to ensure that it requires an individual, 21 years old or older to sign for the delivery or take possession of the cigar or pipe tobacco. And, uh, and it adds that same line to line 2 62. That is the amendment. Now, I'll speak to the, uh, substitute of the bill. This bill, to be very clear, the reason that I ran this bill in the first place, there are two reasons. This is unregulated space right now. Uh, folks are buying cigars on the internet and the state of Utah has done no regulation here to, for, and that's what this bill is for. And I also wanted to protect children in the process. Um, what this bill does in, in, in simple terms, is it, uh, lays out a structure to, to license, uh, purveyors of cigars and pipe tobacco in a way that they can sell it legally on the internet and be taxed according to, uh, data from the Utah Tax Commission. Uh, unlike, uh, Zen pouches, I would say that, uh, cigars are used by the moral flute of our society in general terms. And, uh, I, I, I want to, uh, uh, discourage, uh, bootleg sales because we know they're happening. And I think by, uh, legalizing a process, by forming a, uh, framework here, uh, we're gonna get it, uh, on legal footing. Uh, the example I use, uh, in talking to some of my colleagues today, I used to live in Colorado. It brings me to tears to drive to Colorado Springs now and spend any time on the street watching, uh, young high school kids stoned. Um, this is unregulated, uh, recreational marijuana use. We don't have these same problems in Utah because we regulate, uh, marijuana for medical purposes. And I would say this is an area where the government needs to breathe in to what's going on and regulate, uh, the internet a little better. Will it solve the problem entirely? Probably not. But it forms a structure and it gets the, uh, the, the, the tax going and it causes companies to, to, uh, to sign up and get and get a license to sign on the internet. Um, with that, I'll just stop, uh, and, um, answer any questions. Uh, and I'll just say last thing, substitute one, uh, primarily came from the tax commission. This bill was written in conjunction with the tax commission and industry. And with that, I'm open to questions.

Do we need to adopt the first sub?

I move that we adopt the amendment for HB 4, 4 7.

Again, it just strengthens, uh, the delivery process so children can't get this product. Thanks.

Uh, thank you Mr. Chair. I'd like to make a motion that we favorably recommend House Bill 4 47, first substitute as amended.

Will waive. Okay. Sponsor, I'll waive. Thank you Committee.

Thanks. Congratulations committee. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I'll go back to my committee Now. Yes, thank you. Good luck. Okay.

there's approximately 15 million. Um, and the funds that we used to match for those grants was part of the 20 million that you all set aside a few years ago, specifically for that purpose. Is that, is that 20 million exhausted? No. So one of the, one of the concerns is, you know, we're creating an earmark inside of the earmark, not, not my favorite process, but at the same time, we're already putting 20 million, we're, we've got 20 million set aside so we can meet these federal grant projects. So we're already getting federal grant money. One, two. Uh, the other part of this is, it sounds like we're spending, if I, if we, if I aggregated over three years, it sounds like we're spending about 11 million a year based on, based on projects already that, that we're already prioritizing.

That's not likely. Um, the way that these current projects come about is that our, our regions prioritize their lists of needs, and they present these project lists to our commission, the Transportation Commission, and they select the projects that, that we work on. I would imagine that the regions would still be proposing those projects.

Good Morning Committee. My name's Sierra Nelson. I'm from Cash Valley, and I represent the Utah Wool Growers Association as their executive director. And I'm also vice-chair of the Utah Sportsman's Caucus. So it's why my hair's so big. I have so many different hats on there. I wanted to testify this morning in favor of this bill. It's a win for wildlife, and it's a win for ag at the same time. And I love me a win-win. There's two kinds of people where I'm from, people who have hit elk and people who will hit elk. And I really feel like there's so much benefit in this bill to wildlife and to the safety of human life. When you hit an elk, sometimes that's a one-way trip. Those things are huge. And, you know, there's so many collisions with deer. Anything that we can do to help our wildlife in this state and in hand help our agriculture At the same time, I appreciate, and I really appreciate the sponsor bringing

Thank you Mr. Speaker. Motion to adopt, uh, second substitute or second amendment in my name. The motion is to adopt amendment number two at first substitute house before 47.

Yeah, I would. It simply makes a change. On line three 13, technical language from the tax commission that specifies when the tax on these products is collected,

I'll waive Commission is waived.

Alright, thank you Mr. Speaker. Um, this bill was written in conjunction with the tax commission and essentially the purpose for the bill was to regulate unregulated space. Uh, we we'd seen, uh, bootleg sales of, of cigars and tobacco, uh, products for pipes were being, uh, processed through the mail and through the internet. And these products, uh, were being delivered to miners in some cases. And so what this bill does is it just creates a licensing, bonding and taxation structure for the sale, uh, and marketing of, of cigars and, uh, pipe tobacco on, on the internet and through, through the phone. Um, it also, uh, protects miners from receiving any of these products, uh, either by phone, mail, or internet. It requires, uh, either to be 21 or older or receive these products. And, uh, again, uh, the idea here is for the state to get the requisite tax from these products. And with that, I'm open to questions.

Thank you Mr. Speaker Pro Tem. I think this is a great bill, but because it has rule making authority, I will not be voting for it. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I'll waive that. Summation is waived.

Thank you President. This bill aims to regulate the remote retail sale of cigar cigars and pipe tobacco. Uh, particularly those sales done on the internet and mail or telephone. Uh, there's a licensing and compliance piece. It creates a regulatory framework requiring remote retailers to obtain a specific license, post a bond, and pay applicable taxes to the state. Uh, it mandates age verification that remote remote sellers must use robust age verification to ensure purchasers are over 21 years old. Uh, it requires that an individual 21 or older must sign for and take physical possession of the products upon delivery. It grants the state tax Commission the authority to oversee these transactions, collect the necessary data, and establish rules for reporting. So we're helping protect youth from purchasing tobacco products illegally online and making sure that this is already happening, happening and making sure that the state receives the tax from those online tobacco sales.

I I move that we pass. First substitute house bill 4 47. Thank