STAND. COM. REP. NO. 563

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1113

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 1113 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GEOGRAPHIC LIMITATIONS ON TIME SHARES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to repeal the requirement that a hotel located in a county with a population in excess of five hundred thousand residents that is converted to a time share must consist of at least sixty units, forty per cent of which are sold or rented as residential apartments. 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Wyndham Worldwide, American Resort Development Association, and Starwood Resorts.  Testimony with comments on this measure was received from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that it is important to preserve an adequate supply of affordable housing stock for rental or purchase by Hawaii residents.  However, time shares also serve an important function in maintaining consistent tourism levels and rehabilitating older hotel properties.  Your Committee further finds that the current law places the burden of compliance on the developer of a time share property even though the developer does not have the ability to control the use of independently owned units within the development.  

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Preserving the provision of the current law that allows timeshares in a county with a population in excess of five hundred thousand, in an existing hotel that has been converted to time share units, thus repealing only the existing language requiring that hotels with more than sixty units have at least forty per cent of the units available as residential apartments for sale or rent; and

(2)  Making a minor, nonsubstantive, technical change for the purpose of clarity and accuracy in the language of this measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1113, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1113, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce and Consumer Protection,

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair