Representative Jon Riki Karamatsu
Floor Speech
Senate Bill 682
Relating to Tobacco
Tuesday, May 3, 2005
I rise in support.
Mr. Speaker, in regards to Senate Bill 682, I want to thank the chair of Health and vice chair of Judiciary for working with the other conferees on a compromise. I would also like to thank the representatives from Waimea, Upcountry Maui, Wailuku, Mililani, and Waipahu for their suggestions.
The concerns some of us had were with the penalties businesses would face. We took out most of the “gross negligence language” and emphasized the “intent” and “fraudulent” language.
The main concern I have with the bill is allowing the attorney general rulemaking authority. When I asked Attorney General Bennet what he plans to do through rulemaking, he stated that he wanted to get more penalties on businesses. I got confused because I thought the intent was to punish the black market especially when the punishment deals with revocation of a license to do business and possible jail time? However, the attorney general gave us his word that the rules will be fair and he will show them to the legislature. As a compromise, we placed a sunset date of July 1, 2009 so we can analyze the work of the attorney general.
Even though there are parts of this bill that I still have concerns with, I think we did the best we could to find a compromise. Although, I did not get the pleasure of meeting him, I hope Speaker Richard Kawakami is proud of our efforts.
Thank you Mr. Speaker.
JON RIKI KARAMATSU 