AB 631: Alcoholic beverage control: licenses: nonprofit cultural film exhibition companies.

Existing law, the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act, authorizes the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to issue a special on-sale general license to a nonprofit theater company, subject to specified requirements. Existing law makes it a misdemeanor for any on- or off-sale licensee, or agent of that licensee, to sell, give, or deliver to any persons any alcoholic beverage between the hours of 2 a.m. and 6 a.m. of the same day. The act defines public premises to mean, among other things, a premises in which food products are only sold or served incidentally to the sale or service of alcoholic beverages and exempts an above-described nonprofit theater company from the definition.

This bill would authorize the department to issue a special on-sale general license to a nonprofit cultural film exhibition company with specified characteristics, including that it predominantly exhibits classic, foreign, independent, or rare movies and is exempt from the payment of income taxes, as specified. The bill would authorize those nonprofit cultural film exhibition companies, subject to the misdemeanor provision described above, to sell and serve alcoholic beverages, as specified, to ticketholders only during, and 2 hours before and one hour after, a bona fide film exhibition of the company. The bill would also exempt companies licensed pursuant to those provisions from the definition of public premises.

By expanding the application of an existing crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program.

The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.

This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.

This bill would incorporate additional changes to Sections 23039 and 24045.7 of the Business and Professions Code proposed by SB 1370 to be operative only if this bill and SB 1370 are enacted and this bill is enacted last.