STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2419

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2430

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Tourism and Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 2430 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE TRANSIENT ACCOMMODATIONS TAX,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allocate $3,000,000 of the transient accommodations tax revenues to the special land and development fund for the protection, improvement, and construction of natural resources and facilities associated with the visitor experience.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawaii Tourism Authority, Historic Hawaii Foundation, and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

     Your Committees find that the special land and development fund helps to protect, preserve, and enhance the State's natural resources and facilities, which are important to the visitor industry.  This measure invests in Hawaii's great legacy and irreplaceable treasures, including natural, historic, and cultural attractions.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Increasing the allocation to $12,000,000; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Tourism and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2430, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2430, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Tourism and Water and Land,

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair

____________________________ GILBERT KAHELE, Chair