HB439: AN ACT relating to alcoholic beverages and declaring an emergency.

Legislative Summary

Amends KRS 211.285 to rename the “malt beverage education fund” as the “alcohol wellness and responsibility education fund,” to add proceeds from Alcoholic Beverage Control Board distilled spirit auctions to the fund, to issue moneys from the fund to the Alcohol Wellness and Responsibility Education Corporation, to modify membership of the corporation’s board of directors, to authorize the corporation to accept grant applications from Kentucky high schools, colleges, universities, and other entities that promote alcohol responsibility, and to increase Project Graduation grants to $1,000 annually; amends KRS 241.010 to decrease the minimum number of passengers from 100 to 40 in the definition of “riverboat”; amends KRS 241.060 and 243.540 to allow the Alcoholic Beverage Control board to dispose of alcoholic beverages through public auction when a final order has been issued after all appeals are exhausted, to promulgate administrative regulations to establish auction procedures, and to donate all auction proceeds to the alcohol wellness and responsibility education fund; amends KRS 241.066 to allow one quota retail package license for every 2,000 residents in any wet county or urban-county government with more than 100,000 residents, unless a lower statutory ratio is already established; amends KRS 241.069 and 242.021 to permit a city, county, or urban-county government to petition for an increase in the number of quota retail package licenses at least one year after the certification of the local option election; creates a new section of KRS Chapter 243 to establish requirements for persons delivering alcoholic beverages on behalf of a retail package licensee; amends KRS 243.030 to create a $300 annual vintage distilled spirits license fee; amends KRS 243.110 to authorize the holder of a primary license to also hold a vintage distilled spirits license; amends KRS 243.200 to remove vehicle requirement provisions from a transporter’s license; amends KRS 243.232 to restructure vintage distilled spirits licenses and sales, to allow a licensee who may sell distilled spirits by the drink or package to receive a vintage distilled spirits license as a supplementary license, to require vintage distilled spirits licensees to file a monthly report with the department, to require all purchases to be in-person at the licensed premises, to direct the licensee to conspicuously label the purchase as vintage distilled spirits, to limit a licensee to 24 vintage distilled spirits packages purchased from each seller every 12 months, and to limit any seller to 24 packages total every 12 months; amends KRS 243.360 to give an applicant the option to advertise intent to apply for a license either online or in print and to exempt a vintage distilled spirits license applicant from the public notice advertising requirement; amends KRS 243.990 to establish fines for vintage distilled spirits sellers who exceed the maximum package limit; and creates a new section of KRS Chapter 244 to establish procedures for department seizure of alcoholic beverages, including providing notice of violations within 14 days, to return the alcoholic beverages to the licensee if the department fails to provide notice, and to establish licensee administrative hearing and Circuit Court appellate rights; EMERGENCY.