STAND. COM. REP. NO.  216-10

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2010

RE:   H.B. No. 2445

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Tourism, Culture, & International Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 2445 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII TOURISM AUTHORITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to improve Hawaii's tourism industry and the administration of the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) by:

     (1)  Authorizing HTA to maintain confidentiality of certain sensitive information;

     (2)  Directing HTA to develop program performance goals and targets that can be monitored as market gauges and used as attributes to evaluate their promotions;

     (3)  Conforming reporting requirements for contracts or agreements entered into by HTA to current practices; and

     (4)  Making permanent statutory provisions that exempted HTA accounts from the supervision of the State Comptroller and authorized the use of up to five percent of moneys in the Tourism Special Fund for administrative expenses.

     HTA, the Tourism Liaison, and the Hawaii Hotel & Lodging Association testified in support of this bill.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Requiring that HTA include data on expenditures of contracts granted within the state and out-of-state in its annual report of expenditures submitted to the Governor and Legislature;

     (2)  Specifying that the reports on contracts or agreements entered into by HTA be submitted quarterly rather than periodically;

     (3)  Changing its effective date to January 1, 2112, to encourage further discussion; and

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Tourism, Culture, & International Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2445, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2445, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Tourism, Culture, & International Affairs,

____________________________

JOEY MANAHAN, Chair