have 20 employees and they are fed up because first it was the health care initiative or the minimum wage with no tip credits. now the people making 30-$40 an hour are making more than the owners. you will kill the industry, you will kill the reason people come

to spend money in san francisco in our number one industry. >> please refrain from clapping. i generally don't want to have too long. if you could refrain, i would appreciate it. >> i am a young mother working with horizons are limited. i speak for all of the when i say the recent budget cuts have ruined our communities and our mission for reform. i supported this fee because we need this program to stay strong. thank you for your time. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. i'm the program director at horizons unlimited. i've had the pleasure to witness the benefit and the light

changes that prevention and treatment programs have had for our youth. i have witnessed the horrible effect that alcohol-related harm has had on families, youth, and our community is. what we are asking for is a pittance in relation to the billions of dollars of profit made by alcohol. the services that this would support is vital to supporting and sustaining families and communities. i want to share some of the activities that we do which is medium messaging. on the way here, i am also educating myself, i'm looking on the billboards and i probably passed about 10 alcohol-related billboards. at the end of each of says, trent responsibly. we're asking them to act responsibly, thank you.

>> i am here to represent the san francisco green party who stands in strong support of this fee to pay for services. to give some good indications, i want to bring this down to a very personal level. first of all, on a positive note toward alcohol. i like this stuff. i am a fan of microbrew. i like organic red wine, especially from california. there is nothing more important to me then after 10 days of working and fighting, for me to kick it with my friends in the

bar and relax. there's a flip side to my experience and that is i was raised by father it was a severe alcoholic and he got a violent and abusive when he was drunk. the impact on that on my life and the life of my siblings is profound this is a profound economic impact and an emotional impact. on one night, my father chase my mother out into the darkness carrying a shotgun and took a shot at her. lucky for me, he missed. i would like everyone to take a step and think about what my life would have been like if he had not missed when he shot at my mother. every day, an abuser of alcohol

does not miss. i cannot call myself irresponsible drinker. no one can call themselves a responsible wholesaler or retailer if they're not willing to make a couple of cents on the dollar to make sure that we are getting some funds available so as much as that kind of thing that happened in my life does not happen to other people. >> thank you. >> thank you, supervisors. i'm the director of the house services through the aids coalition. i am here to speak in favor of this mitigation fee. i'm speaking for the aids foundation and as someone who was worked in this conidiophore many years with the treatment on demand planning council. as someone who has come here many times to testify to try to preserve some funding for

substance abuse treatment which is generally the first thing to get cut every time there is a budget crunch. having a dedicated funding stream would be a vast improvement to our current system where we have to go through budget cuts every year. the reason i'm here is alcohol and other substances are primary drivers of the hiv epidemic. this is something which was prominently highlighted in the international aids conference that i just returned from. if we have any hope of ending the epidemic, that will not happen unless we have sufficient funding for of all and treatment and prevention. i hope that you will pass this the. >> thank you.

>> [singing] police released a fee, please let it go police -- please release the feed, please let it go. please release the fee and set them free and they will get all of the help of around four free. release the help and let them live again. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, i'm a lifelong resident of san francisco and a small business owner. i paid every single tax, license and fee, that has been asked to

me of the city and county of liasson -- a san francisco. the fee went up to 1015 without any increase in city services. the worker works on my street will be unemployed by november. my water rates have been raised, i have to pay $200 a month to have the sidewalks clean because the city says this is my responsibility. i'd pay an amusement see. if i could ever get ahead of enough, i would have to cover health insurance. i will be forced to put a further strain on my customers which will lessen their ability to go out for cheap entertainment and will

eventually put me and many of your constituents out of business. who will you collect your taxes and fees from many are currently or recently unemployed. our rates have gone up so that they're paying a $2 cover charge. if they like to take public transportation, they are limited in the services. i don't charge for games or amusement said that they can stretch their dollars. these are people who simply want to commune with like-minded citizens. your own biography says that you first move to a cafe. on one of these, they are two letters 72 liquor licenses. 81% are beer and wine only. he will put your constituents

out of work. >> i can see how all of this confuses you. we favor the initiatives as proposed. we see where other people are coming from as far as being out of work and unable to support themselves. when you weigh the amount of damage that is being done to the community and the fact that many people are dying such as being on the receiving end on cirrhosis of the liver and numerous cancers that are caused by alcohol alone, i believe that this initiative should be passed and the fact that our services used to prevent this type of abuse must be shared. not only shared by the people who who are on the overall end and the beginning line of the

alcohol business, this is the beginning step that i feel that i would like to get together with the supervisors and have a big business as far as the owners and manufacturers of the alcohol to set up a trust fund just for people who end up having to need the emergency services as far as saving their lives is concerned. this is a complex situation and the pros and cons have to be weighed as far as the people or actually being hurt by the alcohol. >> good afternoon. we are proud of the services that the city has provided an has historically provided in the health department and fire department who regardless of what is causing the injury or the sickness. we believe those programs are vital and their pay for by san

francisco businesses. they pay over $350 million alone in direct business taxes to the city of san francisco. i urge you to make public the opinion of the city attorney's office after the legality of this feat. you are limited in state law to three times the fees that you can impose, a fee on property transactions such as entitlements. a fiat direct services for a particular recipient of service. regulatory fees, if you are not legally able to regulate the wholesale or sale of liquor in the state of california or directly attacks this. what is the regulation that is being imposed by this ordinance. i could find no regulation, i could only find a fee and where

it's paid back to the health department. an oakland case which did find a fee on retailers of alcohol went to the question of the code of conduct at the street side of sale. under the oakland case, you cannot impose a fee which is a tax in disguise. when a fee is imposed for a regulatory purpose. the imposed some is not a tax but a fee. when this is for a revenue purpose and the payment gives the right to carry on without further condition, this is a tax. we believe that this is an illegal see and we would like to get the city attorney's opinion. >> thank you.

>> please refrain from clapping. >> good afternoon, i am a winemaker living and working in san francisco and i have had a wine store since 1978. i would like to bring to the committee's attention that california is very unique in one real interesting thing in that we can also make wine in the valley and then turn around and sell it to you. there are about 2000 of us that can do that. we are essentially the wholesaler. then there as another 5000 that we rent space from so your numbers are off. implementation will be a nightmare. the 5000 winery's, you missed. the 2000 wine makers, you totally missed.

you're looking at every airline in san francisco which has its own license. they will get this feat. there is a perception, it looks like it has gone from the $40 cents a bottle down to 50 cents. there will still be a perception world wide that we are trying to fix 2000 trunks on the streets with a $2 tax. that is not san francisco. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> i am a professional bartender. i currently work in district 6.

by selling alcohol, and might cause in the problems that we are trying to fix? this is the experiments, this is a very noble cause, we know how that when ended. coming back to the local level, when you have many many businesses paying into city taxes and programs like health the san francisco that are trying to help the health of this city and keep it in good condition, how can we add more taxes to that or more feasted that?

-- more fees to that? for the main profit margin we have is through alcohol. at $8.50 a bottle for our fought gun -- for our vodka, this is almost a dollar per bottle. this amounts to a 1.12% increase above what we are ready pain -- paying. we have to stay in business to pay the taxes. we feel that this might really reduce our contribution. >> next speaker, please.

>> i and stand to reason for the fast track but i was at the small business commission and the small business commissioners communicated numerous concerns with this and i know they wanted to have an opportunity to weigh in. i would like to know where the money for the rest of the services will come from. this is more than just alcoholism. i took a minute to look at how many family members were impacted. i don't think that this is where i am arguing from. i would like to know in the days when we had budget services, i thin around for 25 years.

i'm wondering where the levels of commitments, where the prevention programs, where did they take us? at different times, we had those surpluses. i'm concerned about the fact that this is a tax. this will further implement our budget to aid detriment because it might meet with legal challenges and that will cost the taxpayers and also have an impact on the budget. i encourage some real thought to the bigger picture of economic development and job creation. that will increase the taxes in the city. >> i was on an outreach team and

they cost the city over a million dollars each. not only would it cost the city but also the store owners. that also cost the tourist industry, or the mayor's office, the out research team to go kick people because they were causing problems because of the impact to the whole community. i had to go and remove people because the children did not feel safe. this impacts all of the community. there is a great story about this last year.

we don't have the funding for this. every year i have to come out and try to save this program. we are hearing from other folks would know. there is no reimbursement. here is a great opportunity.

chair avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. again, if we can refrain from clapping. >> we represent over 13,000 members in the bay area. we currently represent over 1000 members in the driving warehouse sales, that is the spirits and beer. this is with the union 401k, great wages, and worker protection. this looks like public purchasing.

there has been talk about public-sector employment. what would happen to our jobs? and to this date, we do not know how many jobs there are. they would lose their benefits that took years and years to fight for to achieve. if this happens, what will happen to their benefits when they get laid off? we do not support this fee for our members' benefits. thank you. chair avalos: thank you very much. [reading names] >> a supervisor in the coming

election. we are talking about the legal right to do it. my understanding is that they have a right to charge a regulatory fee, and it might save some legal hassles. second, i support what you are doing. this was addressed at the beginning of the session. you did a wonderful job, and thank you so much. one of the things, social problems that we have, that is alcohol abuse by minors. i think it might be a good idea to an least consider a citation when alcohol has been consumed by someone under 21, and in the case of a minor, to the parents,

and that the citation be in the amount of $300 and that the $300 citation be weighed in the event that they attend an alcohol education course, so we get education in their along with the regulation, in order to address the underlying social problem. this amount of $300 would be forgiven a upon completion of the alcohol course. the teacher would be certified by the department of health. they would also have to have teacher credentials. whatever right be necessary for alcohol education. i hope you like my ideas.

i have a couple of other ideas. it seems to me that it is a couple million dollars, which may not be that much. [bell] chair avalos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> supervisors, my name is charles, and i am representing the glass unions here in california. currently, there are 2700 union glass jobs, with generations of families working in this industry. there are the containers that we manufacture, the alcohol containers for the beer, wine, and spirits, and we are having a hard time competing with mexico and china, and any fluctuation in business is going to dramatically reduce our jobs, and it could be a number as high

as 300. with these contracts for these worries -- breweries and wineries, we will probably be closing things down. these are good union jobs, and they have medical. we do not want to wind up without a job and then wind up in the system, because that is a cause. what is going to drive the economy is jobs -- that is a cost. one of the things that i have a hard time understanding is you guys talk about how great san francisco is. they would impose a fee where not only 5% of the people will have to pay for people who have a problem. that number really did not matter.

i kind of think that was wrong. we strongly oppose it, and we would like to know. thank you very much. chair avalos: thank you. next speaker. >> my name is -- i own a restaurant, a nightclub, and a small hotel here in san francisco. unjustly tax in a beverage of choice has led to violent revolt a couple of times, so i was surprised this was being considered -- unjustly taxing a beverage. what is left out of the conversation seems to be the millions of dollars in tax revenue that is collected by the alcohol industry. i think we would all agree that alcohol is a problem in our society, and this is to find money for these programs, to get some of the federal excise money, the federal excise money that is paid by the alcohol

industry, and put it towards these programs. i do not think there is a bar owner in san francisco that does not support helping people with a problem, but for every store you have about a drunken needs help, there are thousands of people who celebrate every celebration in their lives successfully with alcohol, and that is a fabric of our society. my own supervisor pontificated about wanting to hear from businesses, and this hearing was important enough for him to stick around for, and i urge you for a no vote, because this is a tax on small business, and that is what this is. the fact of the matter is is the small business that carries the brunt of all of these decisions that you make, and, yes, this guy did fall for several of my employees, because we cannot afford to keep them around anymore, so think about the fact anymore, so think about the fact that we employ more people than