STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2482

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2461

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2461, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to raise the rental motor vehicle customer facility charge.

     Specifically, the measure:

     (1)  Beginning September 1, 2010, increases the rental motor vehicle customer facility charge from $1 to $4.50 per day;

     (2)  Requires the Department of Transportation to collect the fee for at least twenty years;

     (3)  Raises the ceiling of the rental motor vehicle customer facility special fund from $25,000,000 to $500,000,000;

     (4)  Appropriates $320,000,000 from the rental motor vehicle customer facility charge special fund for rental motor vehicle related expenses at the Honolulu international airport and the Kahului airport; and

     (5)  Requires all unencumbered balances of appropriations made pursuant to Act 226, Session Laws of Hawaii 2008, to lapse into the rental motor vehicle customer facility charge special fund on June 30, 2011.

     Your Committee finds that facility improvements to motor vehicle rental concessions at the State's public airports are now necessary.  Over time, the motor vehicle rental facilities have deteriorated and not kept pace with the demands of visitors and residents who use motor vehicle rental services.

     Your Committee also finds that in 2008, the Legislature established a rental motor vehicle customer facility charge of $1 per day.  The charges, however, have not generated the revenue necessary to finance related construction projects.  Your Committee believes that an increase of the rental motor vehicle customer facility charge will strongly support rental motor vehicle facility construction projects and save as much as $300,000,000 in finance costs.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Codifying the increase of the rental motor vehicle customer facility charge from $1 to $4.50 per day;

     (2)  Clarifying the department's authority to establish, levy, assess, and collect rental motor vehicle customer facility charges without the prior necessity of adopting rules;

     (3)  Repealing the provisions in section 9 of Act 226, Session Laws of Hawaii 2008, relating to the rental motor vehicle customer facility charge, which in part, repeals the ceiling on the rental motor vehicle customer facility special fund; and

     (4)  Making technical nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2461, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2461, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair