REPRESENTATIVE Corina Magofna on Monday introduced House Bill 22-109 which would amend the Price Freeze Act of 1996 to allow the government to freeze or set a cap on consumer goods in response to health emergencies.
The existing law permits the governor to implement a temporary freeze on prices in the event of natural disasters such as typhoons.
H.B. 22-109 or Price Control Act of 2022 would provide the governor the flexibility to impose caps on increases in prices of consumer goods.
“While acknowledging that imposing caps is a significant interjection into market transactions, the Legislature finds that these times of crisis call for extraordinary measures to safeguard the community,” the bill states.
The measure states that the governor shall include public health emergency among the conditions for declaring a price freeze or cap on price hikes.
“Upon the declaration of a price cap, all prices of items for sale, and housing rentals including apartments and condos, shall be permitted to increase by no more than the increase in the consumer price index of the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics in a given month, until the governor rescinds the price cap, or the declaration of emergency or disaster is terminated,” the bill states.
The bill does not change the current penalties to be imposed on violators. The criminal penalty is still $10,000 or one year of imprisonment for any person “who sells, or presents for sale, an item whose price has been unlawfully raised or increases, to a degree made unlawful under Section 5142 of this chapter, housing rentals, including apartments and condos, while price freeze or cap was in effect.”
The civil penalty for the same violation is $2,500.
