Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 835 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the waiver of unpaid taxes and fees for a vehicle owned by a person age seventy or over, when the owner transfers the vehicle to a person receiving medical assistance or to a tax-exempt organization.

A concerned citizen testified orally in support of this measure. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Customer Services of the City and County of Honolulu.

Your Committee finds that this measure will address an increasingly common problem in the State. According to one testifier, apparently as our residents grow older, their motor vehicles may sit unregistered and unused for various reasons, such as death of a spouse, illness, or merely because the person stops driving.

Even while the vehicle sits unused, however, it continues to incur registration fees and taxes, which quickly mount. Then, when the owner attempts to transfer the vehicle, the unpaid taxes and fees must first be paid.

Your Committee finds that in such cases, if the owner attempts to transfer the vehicle to a person receiving medical assistance, as defined in section 346-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes, or to a tax exempt organization, there should be a provision in the law requiring the unpaid taxes and fees to be waived to prevent unnecessary hardship.

Your Committee amended this measure to clarify the language.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 835, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 835, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.