STAND. COM. REP. NO. 91

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 916

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism, to which was referred S.B. No. 916 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TAXATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to specify that $1,000,000 of the transient accommodations tax revenues currently allocated to operate a Hawaiian Center and the Museum of Hawaiian Music and Dance may also be used to plan, design, and construct these facilities at an unspecified location.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Tourism Authority, Royal Hawaiian Center, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii and one individual.

Your Committee finds that broadening the purposes for which the $1,000,000 allocation of Transient Accommodations Tax revenue for a Hawaiian Center and the Museum of Hawaiian Music is necessary because it will allow the funds to be utilized for both the operations and the development of the Hawaiian Center.

Your Committee further finds that specifying the use of the allocation to include planning, design, and construction will sufficiently provide for the necessary infrastructural pre-requisites for the establishment of a Hawaiian Center and the Museum of Hawaiian Music and Dance. Your Committee also finds that identifying the general location for the Hawaiian Center and the Museum of Hawaiian Music and Dance is an important next step in moving the project forward.

Your Committee has amended this measure by adding Waikiki as the future location of the Hawaiian Center and the Museum of Hawaiian Music and Dance.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 916, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 916, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism,

________________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair