Board advances fee on alcohol wholesalers to fund alcohol-related services; first reading passes

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors advanced an ordinance in its first reading that would impose a fee on alcoholic beverage wholesalers to recover part of the city’s alcohol‑attributable health and emergency costs.

Supervisor John Avalos, the ordinance’s sponsor, said the measure is intended to help maintain treatment and public‑health services that “help us carry out our mission of keeping our sidewalks safe” and to shift some of the costs of repeated emergency care for severe alcoholism to alcohol distributors. Avalos cited a nexus study estimating about $17,700,000 in annual alcohol‑attributable costs and said the fee would collect up to 90 percent of that amount.

The ordinance sets per‑gallon rates Avalos outlined for wholesalers: 35 cents per gallon of beer, $1.00 per gallon of wine and $3.20 per gallon for distilled spirits, which he said would translate to roughly 3–5 cents per drink. Avalos also described several amendments the board accepted, including a provision to capture purchases by “warehouse” retailers that buy outside the city for resale inside San Francisco, an indexing…