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History
- Referred to codes
- Referred to codes
Full text
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Title of bill
An act to amend the penal law, the alcoholic beverage control law, the administrative code of the city of New York, the general city law, the general municipal law and the vehicle and traffic law, in relation to the unlawful sale of alcohol to an underage person
Purpose
This bill is a technical amendment to address several discrepancies in the penal law relative to crimes against children, the disabled and the elderly contained in article 260 of the penal law.
Summary of provisions
The bill moves the current crime of sale of alcohol to a person under the age of twenty one from a subdivision of section 260.20, the crime of unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree, to its own section of law, a new section 260.22, titled unlawful sale of alcohol to an underaged person. The bill also renumbers section 260.30 as added by chapter 600 of the laws of 1997 as section 260.40 in order to remedy a duplication of sections enacted in 1998. The bill makes technical corrections to a number of laws in order to reflect these changes in the penal law.
Existing law
Under current law the unlawful sale of alcohol to a person under the age of 21 is classified as unlawfully dealing with a child in the first degree, a class A misdemeanor. In addition in 1998 the Legislature passed two laws, both added as section 260.30 of the penal law. Chapter 381 of the laws of 1998 dealt with vulnerable elderly persons. Chapter 600 of the laws of 1998 dealt with misrepresentation by a child day care provider.
Justification
Prior to increasing the drinking age from 18 years old to 21 years old, it made some sense to classifying the crime of sale of alcohol as a form of unlawful dealing with a child. However, since the age of majority in New York State is eighteen and the legal drinking age has now been raised to twenty-one, the crime is no longer applicable only to children. Defining this crime as a form of unlawfully dealing with children misrepresents the crime. Creating a separate section of the penal law titled unlawful sale of alcohol to an underage person more accurately reflects the criminal conduct being proscribed.
In addition, for clarity sake the duplication of sections 260.30 created in 1998 should be eliminated.
Legislative history
2008: S.6701-A/A.10017, Passed Senate.
Fiscal implications
None.
Effective date
Immediately.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.