Bill Text: NJ A3895 | 2018-2019 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Requires percentage of alcoholic beverage penalties be forwarded to municipality.
Spectrum: Slight Partisan Bill (Democrat 2-1)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2018-05-07 - Introduced, Referred to Assembly Oversight, Reform and Federal Relations Committee [A3895 Detail]
Download: New_Jersey-2018-A3895-Introduced.html
Sponsored by:
Assemblyman ERIC HOUGHTALING
District 11 (Monmouth)
Assemblywoman JOANN DOWNEY
District 11 (Monmouth)
SYNOPSIS
Requires percentage of alcoholic beverage penalties be forwarded to municipality.
CURRENT VERSION OF TEXT
As introduced.
An Act concerning alcoholic beverage licensing and amending R.S.33:1-31 and P.L.1992, c.188.
Be It Enacted by the Senate and General Assembly of the State of New Jersey:
1. R.S.33:1-31 is amended to read as follows:
33:1-31. Any license, whether issued by the director or any other issuing authority, may be suspended or revoked by the director, or the other issuing authority may suspend or revoke any license issued by it, for any of the following causes:
a. Violation of any of the provisions of this chapter;
b. Manufacture, transportation, distribution or sale of alcoholic beverages in a manner or to an extent not permitted by the license or by law;
c. Nonpayment of any excise tax or other payment required by law to be paid to the State Tax Commissioner;
d. Failure to comply with any of the provisions of subtitle 8 of the Title Taxation ( s.54:41-1 et seq.);
e. Failure to have at all times a valid, unrevoked permit, license or special tax stamp, or other indicia of payment, of all fees, taxes, penalties and payments required by any law of the United States;
f. Failure to have at all times proper stamps or other proper evidence of payment of any tax required to be paid by any law of this State;
g. Any violation of rules and regulations;
h. Any violation of any ordinance, resolution or regulation of any other issuing authority or governing board or body;
i. Any other act or happening, occurring after the time of making of an application for a license which if it had occurred before said time would have prevented the issuance of the license; or
j. For any other cause designated by this chapter.
No suspension or revocation of any license shall be made until a five-day notice of the charges preferred against the licensee shall have been given to him personally or by mailing the same by registered mail addressed to him at the licensed premises and a reasonable opportunity to be heard thereon afforded to him.
A suspension or revocation of license shall be effected by a notice in writing of such suspension or revocation, designating the effective date thereof, and in case of suspension, the term of such suspension, which notice may be served upon the licensee personally or by mailing the same by registered mail addressed to him at the licensed premises. Such suspension or revocation shall apply to the licensee and to the licensed premises.
A revocation shall render the licensee and the officers, directors and each owner, directly or indirectly, of more than [10%] 10 percent of the stock of a corporate licensee ineligible to hold or receive any other license, of any kind or class under this chapter, for a period of two years from the effective date of such revocation and a second revocation shall render the licensee and the officers, directors and each owner, directly or indirectly, of more than [10%] 10 percent of the stock of a corporate licensee ineligible to hold or receive any such license at any time thereafter. Any revocation may, in the discretion of the director or other issuing authority as the case may be, render the licensed premises ineligible to become the subject of any further license, of any kind or class under this chapter, during a period of two years from the effective date of the revocation.
The director may, in his discretion and subject to rules and regulations, accept from any licensee an offer in compromise in such amount as may in the discretion of the director be proper under the circumstances in lieu of any suspension of any license by the director or any other issuing authority. The director shall forward 30 percent of the payment made in lieu of suspension to the issuing authority of the municipality where the violation occurred, to be used for law enforcement purposes.
No refund, except as expressly permitted by section 33:1-26 of this Title, shall be made of any portion of a license fee after issuance of a license; but if any licensee, except a seasonal retail consumption licensee, shall voluntarily surrender his license, there shall be returned to him, after deducting as a surrender fee [50%] 50 percent of the license fee paid by him, the prorated fee for the unexpired term; provided, that [such] a licensee shall not have committed any violation of this chapter or of any rule or regulation or done anything which in the fair discretion of the director or other issuing authority, as the case may be, should bar or preclude [such] the licensee from making such claim for refund and that all taxes and other set-offs or counterclaims which shall have accrued and shall have become due and payable to this State or any municipality, or both, have been paid. [Such] Any refund [, if any,] shall be made as of the date of such surrender. The surrender of a license shall not bar proceedings to revoke such license. The refusal of the other issuing authority to grant any refund hereunder shall be subject to appeal to the director within 30 days after notice of such refusal is mailed to or served upon the licensee. Surrenders of retail licenses shall be promptly certified by the issuing authority to the director. Surrender fees shall be accounted for as are investigation fees. If any licensee to whom a refund shall become due under the provisions of this section shall be indebted to the State of New Jersey for any taxes, penalties or interest by virtue of the provisions of subtitle 8 of the Title Taxation ( s. 54:41-1 et seq.), it shall be the duty of the issuing authority before making any such refund, upon receipt of a certificate of the State Tax Commissioner evidencing the said indebtedness to the State of New Jersey, to deduct therefrom, and to remit forthwith to the State Tax Commissioner the amount of such taxes, penalties and interest.
In the event of any suspension or revocation of any license by the other issuing authority, the licensee may, within 30 days after the date of service or of mailing [of said] the notice of suspension or of revocation, upon payment to the director of a nonreturnable filing fee of [$100.00] $100, appeal to the director from the action of the other issuing authority in suspending or revoking [such] the license which appeal shall act as a stay of [such] suspension or revocation pending the determination thereof unless the director shall otherwise order. When any person files with any other issuing authority written complaint against a licensee specifying charges and requesting that proceedings be instituted to revoke or suspend [such] the license, he may appeal to the director from its refusal to revoke or suspend such license or other action taken by it in connection therewith within 30 days from the time of service upon or mailing of notice to him of such refusal or action. The director shall thereupon fix a time for the hearing of the appeal and before hearing the same shall give at least five days' notice of the time so fixed to [such] the licensee, other issuing authority and appellant.
(cf: P.L.1992, c.188, s.11)
2. Section 14 of P.L.1992, c.188 (C.33:1-4.1) is amended to read as follows:
14. [All] a. Except as prohibited in subsection b. of this section, fees and penalties collected by the Director of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control pursuant to the provisions of Title 33 of the Revised Statutes shall be forwarded to the State Treasurer for deposit in a special nonlapsing fund. Monies in the fund shall be used exclusively for the operation of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau in the Division of State Police and the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control and for reimbursement of all additional costs of enforcement of the provisions of Title 33 incurred by the Department of Law and Public Safety.
b. Thirty percent of the payment made in lieu of suspension shall be forwarded to the issuing authority of a municipality pursuant to R.S.33:1-31.
(cf: P.L.1992, c.188, s.14)
3. This act shall take
effect immediately.
Under current law, the Director of the Division of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) is authorized to accept from a license holder who violates an ABC statute, ordinance, or regulation a monetary offer in lieu of a license suspension by the director or other issuing authority. These payments are deposited in an account to be used exclusively for the operation of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Bureau and for the costs of enforcing the provisions of the "New Jersey Alcoholic Beverage Control Act."
This bill requires that 30 percent of any payment be forwarded to the municipality in which the violation occurred. The bill also requires that the payment be used for law enforcement purposes.
