SB719.DOC

SECTION 1. Hawai‘i depends on imported petroleum for nearly one hundred per cent of its transportation energy needs, leaving the State extremely vulnerable to an oil embargo, supply disruption, or other energy emergency. Hawai‘i's energy security can be increased by diversifying Hawai‘i's transportation fuel needs so that the State will be more reliant on alternative or renewable fuels and vehicles.

The legislature finds that imposing an additional tax on vehicles that weigh more, and proportionally consume more petroleum fuel, will benefit all citizens of Hawai‘i and address energy security problems that adversely affect the State.

The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Increase the general excise tax on passenger cars and pickup trucks weighing over four thousand pounds net weight up to and including ten thousand pounds net weight;

(2) Allocate the additional general excise taxes collected on each passenger car or pickup truck weighing over four thousand pounds net weight into a clean vehicle fund that will be made available for rebates on clean fuel vehicles purchased in the State;

(3) Require the director of finance to develop and implement a plan to distribute the proceeds from the clean vehicle fund by December 31, 2009;

(4) Exempt clean fuel vehicles and electric vehicles from imposition of the general excise tax; and

(5) Define the term "clean fuel".

SECTION 2. Chapter 237, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding two new sections to be appropriately designated and to read follows:

"§237‑ Surcharge on vehicle net weight; clean vehicle fund. (a) In addition to the tax levied in section 237-13(2)(A), there shall be an additional tax levied on the gross proceeds of sales of passenger cars and pickup trucks as follows; provided that insofar as the sale of tangible personal property is at wholesale under section 237-4(a)(8)(B), the sale shall be subject to section 237-13.3. Upon every sale of a passenger car or pickup truck:

(1) Weighing over four thousand pounds net weight, up to and including five thousand pounds net weight, there shall be levied a tax equivalent to one per cent of the gross proceeds of sales; and

(2) Weighing over five thousand pounds net weight, up to and including ten thousand pounds net weight, there shall be levied a tax equivalent to two per cent of the gross proceeds of sales;

provided that this section shall not apply to a passenger car or pickup truck that is used solely for commercial or agricultural purposes.

(b) The tax shall be collected and deposited into a clean vehicle fund that shall be used to provide rebates on vehicles that operate on clean fuel. The director of finance is authorized and shall develop and implement a plan to distribute the proceeds from the clean vehicle fund by December 31, 2009.

(1) "Clean fuel" means:

(A) Natural gas;

(B) Liquefied natural gas;

(D) Hydrogen;

(E) Electricity or hybrid driven; or

(F) Any other fuel at least eighty-five per cent of which consists of one or more of the following: methanol, ethanol, any other alcohol, or ether.

(2) "Passenger car" shall have the same definition as under section 286-2.

(3) "Pickup truck" shall have the same definition as under section 291-14(e).

(d) The department shall adopt rules to effectuate the purposes of this section pursuant to chapter 91, which shall include criteria to determine the vehicles that qualify as commercial or agricultural vehicles.

§237- Clean fuel special fund; established. There is established a clean vehicle special fund, into which shall be deposited fees collected under section 237- ."

SECTION 3. Section 237-24, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§237-24 Amounts not taxable. This chapter shall not apply to the following amounts:

(1) Amounts received under life insurance policies and contracts paid by reason of the death of the insured;

(2) Amounts received (other than amounts paid by reason of death of the insured) under life insurance, endowment, or annuity contracts, either during the term or at maturity or upon surrender of the contract;

(3) Amounts received under any accident insurance or health insurance policy or contract or under workers' compensation acts or employers' liability acts, as compensation for personal injuries, death, or sickness, including also the amount of any damages or other compensation received, whether as a result of action or by private agreement between the parties on account of the personal injuries, death, or sickness;

(4) The value of all property of every kind and sort acquired by gift, bequest, or devise, and the value of all property acquired by descent or inheritance;

(5) Amounts received by any person as compensatory damages for any tort injury to the person, or to the person's character reputation, or received as compensatory damages for any tort injury to or destruction of property, whether as the result of action or by private agreement between the parties (provided that amounts received as punitive damages for tort injury or breach of contract injury shall be included in gross income);

(6) Amounts received as salaries or wages for services rendered by an employee to an employer;

(7) Amounts received as alimony and other similar payments and settlements;

(8) Amounts collected by distributors as fuel taxes on "liquid fuel" imposed by chapter 243, and the amounts collected by such distributors as a fuel tax imposed by any Act of the Congress of the United States;

(9) Taxes on liquor imposed by chapter 244D on dealers holding permits under that chapter;

(10) The amounts of taxes on cigarettes and tobacco products imposed by chapter 245 on wholesalers or dealers holding licenses under that chapter and selling the products at wholesale;

(11) Federal excise taxes imposed on articles sold at retail and collected from the purchasers thereof and paid to the federal government by the retailer;

(12) The amounts of federal taxes under chapter 37 of the Internal Revenue Code, or similar federal taxes, imposed on sugar manufactured in the State, paid by the manufacturer to the federal government;

(13) An amount up to, but not in excess of, $2,000 a year of gross income received by any blind, deaf, or totally disabled person engaging, or continuing, in any business, trade, activity, occupation, or calling within the State; a corporation all of whose outstanding shares are owned by an individual or individuals who are blind, deaf, or totally disabled; a general, limited, or limited liability partnership, all of whose partners are blind, deaf, or totally disabled; or a limited liability company, all of whose members are blind, deaf, or totally disabled;

(14) Amounts received by a producer of sugarcane from the manufacturer to whom the producer sells the sugarcane, where:

(A) The producer is an independent cane farmer, so classed by the Secretary of Agriculture under the Sugar Act of 1948 (61 Stat. 922, Chapter 519) as the Act may be amended or supplemented;

(B) The value or gross proceeds of sale of the sugar, and other products manufactured from the sugarcane, is included in the measure of the tax levied on the manufacturer under section 237-13(1) or (2);

(C) The producer's gross proceeds of sales are dependent upon the actual value of the products manufactured therefrom or the average value of all similar products manufactured by the manufacturer; and

(D) The producer's gross proceeds of sales are reduced by reason of the tax on the value or sale of the manufactured products;

(15) Money paid by the State or eleemosynary child-placing organizations to foster parents for their care of children in foster homes; and

(16) Amounts received by a cooperative housing corporation from its shareholders in reimbursement of funds paid by such corporation for lease rental, real property taxes, and other expenses of operating and maintaining the cooperative land and improvements; provided that such a cooperative corporation is a corporation:

(A) Having one and only one class of stock outstanding;

(B) Each of the stockholders of which is entitled solely by reason of the stockholder's ownership of stock in the corporation, to occupy for dwelling purposes a house, or an apartment in a building owned or leased by the corporation; and

(C) No stockholder of which is entitled (either conditionally or unconditionally) to receive any distribution not out of earnings and profits of the corporation except in a complete or partial liquidation of the corporation[.]; and

(17) Amounts received from the sale of a passenger car as that term is defined in section 286-2, or a pickup truck as that term is defined in section 291-14(e) that:

(A) Is operated by clean fuel as that term is defined in section 237- ; and

(B) Obtains at least forty miles per gallon for a passenger car or at least thirty miles per gallon for a pickup truck based on federal Environmental Protection Agency combined ratings."

SECTION 4. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2009.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	719
TWENTY-FIFTH LEGISLATURE, 2009
STATE OF HAWAII