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LOCAL

HONOLULU STAR-ADVERTISER >> SUNDAY 3/15/15

HOW MAJOR BILLS FARED AT THE CAPITOL

Here is the status of major bills at the halfway point of the 60-day legislative session. The bills that are alive have passed at least one chamber of
the Legislature, or are about to pass. The bills that are failing were not approved by the House or Senate by Thursday's procedural deadline. Failing
bills can be revived later, however, and measures can be re-written to change their effect before the session adjourns in May.

BUSINESS/
TAXES

CRIME

CONSUMER
PROTECTION/LABOR

EDUCATION

ENVIRONMENT/
SUSTAINABILITY

GOVERNMENT

HEALTH/
SOCIAL SERVICES

MISCELLANEOUS

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

PASSING

Excise surcharge
SB 19 SD2

Allows the City & County

of Honolulu to extend the
half-percent excise tax
surcharge for five additional years to provide
more funding to cover
projected cost overruns
for the city's $6 billion
rail transit project. The
surcharge is scheduled
to end in 2022, but the
extension would continue it until 2027. HB
134 HD1 would allow all
counties to impose a
smaller surcharge of
0.25 percent, which is
half the size of the current surcharge.

Ethanol repeal
SB 717 SD2

Repeals the existing requirement that gasoline

for motor vehicles be
composed of 10 percent
ethanol.

Vacation rentals
HB 825 HD1

Imposes state licensing

requirements and enforcement provisions for
transient vacation rentals
that would be regulated
under the Department of
Commerce and Consumer Affairs.

Cell phone
surcharge
SB 193 SD2

Establishes a new prepaid wireless surcharge

to be levied on each retail transaction of prepaid
wireless telecommunications service at the point
of sale; requires revenue
from the surcharge to be
placed in the enhanced
911 fund to provide improved emergency 911
phone service.

Manufacturing
tax credit
HB 1454 HD2

Establishes a non-refundable income tax

credit to offset the cost
of employee training and
equipment purchases for
manufacturing products
in Hawaii. The original
proposal called for a
20 percent credit.

Non-compete
contracts
HB 1090 HD2

Prohibits non-compete
contract language that
bars employees of technology businesses from
later going to work for a
competitor. Senate Bill
1279 HD 2 has similar
provisions, but only bans
post-employment restrictions longer than one year.
FAILING

Earned income
credit
Would establish a refundable state earned-income tax credit.

REIT tax break

Would disallow the dividends-paid tax break for
Real Estate Investment
Trusts.

Limit excise tax

Would repeal the general excise tax on all intermediary business
transactions.

Hire the elderly

Would provide a new income tax credit amounting to 50 percent of
qualified wages for the
first six months of employment for employers
who hire workers 65 or
older.

Farming tax break

Would create an income
tax exemption on the first
$50,000 of income for
farmers with annual
gross incomes of
$200,000 or less.

Telecommuting
tax break
Provides new income tax
credits for employers
when their employees
telecommute for work.

Premium tax
Would temporarily impose an insurance premium tax on mutual
benefit societies and
health maintenance organizations, but exempts
them from the tax if they
do not file for a premium
rate increase during a
specified period.

Cable landings
Would appropriate funds
to the state Department of
Business, Economic Development, and Tourism
to establish broadband
cable landing sites and
complete environmental
studies for the sites.

Decriminalize
marijuana
SB 879 SD 1

Reduces the potential

punishment for
possession of marijuana
to a civil violation subject
to a fine of up to $100
for intentional or knowing
possession of one ounce
or less of marijuana.
Changes the offense of
third-degree promoting a
detrimental drug to
clarify it applies to
possession of more than
an ounce of marijuana.

Concealed
firearms
SB 473 SD2

Authorizes the attorney

general to develop and
implement a state
program to allow active
and retired law
enforcement officers to
carry a concealed
firearm in Hawaii
pursuant to the federal
Law Enforcement
Officers Safety Act of
2003.

Resource
violations
SB 1127 SD2

Provides alternative civil

fines and enforcement
options for the Board of
Land and Natural
Resources to impose in
natural and cultural
resource violation cases.

Wrongful
imprisonment
HB 148 HD2

Provides payments and

services to persons who
can demonstrate they
were wrongfully
convicted of a crime and
imprisoned.

Stolen electronics
SB 514 SD1

Establishes a class C
felony for theft of
personal electronic
devices that may be
used to store or retrieve
personal information.

Domestic violence
SB 388

Requires each county

police department to
post its policies relating
to domestic violence,
officer-involved domestic
violence, and standards
of conduct on its official
website.
FAILING

Victims Rights
Proposes an amendment
to the Hawaii State
Constitution
guaranteeing that victims
of crime and their
surviving family members
have specific rights
related to information
and participation in the
criminal justice process.

Inmates in Arizona
Prohibits the transfer of
inmates in the custody of
the department of public
safety to any correctional
facility that is not
operated by and within
the state. Removes
mandatory minimum
sentencing for
methamphetamine drug
offenses.

Drunken driving
felony
Increases the penalty for
the offense of operating
a vehicle under the
influence of an intoxicant
to a class C felony if the
defendant operated a
vehicle with a passenger
who was 15 or younger.

Corrections
officers education
Requires that every
person newly hired as an
adult corrections officer
have at minimum a high
school diploma

Inmate visits
Appropriates funds to
the Department of Public
Safety to create two pilot
programs designed to
encourage family
visitations with inmates
at state correctional
facilities.

Prison oversight
Creates an independent
prison oversight
committee to monitor
and report on the
conditions of state
correctional facilities,
ensuring that the state's
correctional facilities
comply with federal and
state laws and to
achieve transparency
and accountability in the
operation of safe and
humane correction
facilities.

Tobacco sales
HB 385 HD1

Increases the minimum

age required to
purchase any tobacco
product or electronic
smoking device from 18
to 21. SB 1030 SD1
has similar provisions.

Social media
HB 561 HD1

Prohibits employers from

requiring or requesting
access to personal
social media account
usernames and
passwords for
employees or potential
employees.

Lava insurance
HB 737 HD2

Allows insurers to
annually non-renew no
more than 5 percent of
their policies in a lava
zone in Hawaii County
during a state of
emergency; excludes
cases involving
nonpayment of
premiums or impairment
of the insurers financial
soundness. Bans any
moratorium on
residential property
insurance in a lava zone
in Hawaii County during
a state of emergency if
property insurance
would be otherwise
unavailable.

Student union
HB 553 HD1

Allows UH graduate
students to unionize and
be included in a
collective bargaining
unit.

Public records
HB 287 HD1

Amends the state public

records law to withhold
from public scrutiny
records whose
disclosure may result in
a substantial and
demonstrable risk of
physical harm to an
individual.
FAILING

GMO labeling
Establishes new labeling
requirements for any
food or raw agricultural
commodity sold in the
state that contains a
genetically engineered
material, or was
produced with a
genetically engineered
material.

Pickup truck
passengers
Raises the age from 12
to 18 of passengers
permitted to ride in the
bed of a pickup truck
under certain conditions.
Deems passengers in
the bed of a pickup truck
to have assumed the risk
of injury or death from an
accident.

Utility audits
Mandates a periodic
audit of Hawaii electric
utilities by the Public
Utilities Commission for
managerial, financial, and
environmental
compliance.

Boom boxes
Prohibits noise from a
radio, tape player, or
other sound-making
device on a motor
vehicle that is audible
from 30 feet. Establishes
penalties for violations.

Obama care
Requires health
insurers with at least a
20 percent share of the
health insurance market
which would include
HMSA to submit
qualified plans for
inclusion in the Hawaii
Health Connector.

Section 8
discrimination
Prohibits landlords from
discriminating against
Section 8 tenants who
are seeking to rent
homes.

Affirmative
consent

Pesticide
disclosure

SB 387 SD2

SB 1037 SD2

Requires the University

of Hawaii system to establish and enforce an affirmative consent
standard for all policies
relating to sexual assault,
domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.

Requires the state

Department of Health to
establish a mandatory
disclosure program for
pesticide use by all
persons or entities who
cultivate crops.

Public preschools
HB 820 HD2

Establishes the executive

office on early learning
pre-kindergarten program, which may partner
with the Department of
Education to establish a
high quality public prekindergarten program
within the public school
system. SB 844 SD2
has similar provisions.

Open Doors
SB 64 SD3

Appropriates funds for

the Open Doors preschool subsidy program.
An earlier version of the
bill proposed $6 million in
tuition subsidies for each
of the next two years, but
the actual amount is undetermined in the latest
draft of the bill.

Multi-track
SB 1345

Requires Department of
Education to develop a
transition plan to end
multi-track schedules in
public schools. Requires
the department to give
priority to overpopulated
schools when requesting
authority for construction
projects from the Legislature.

Foreign students
HB 775, HD1

Provides funding to the

state Department of
Business, Economic
Development, and
Tourism to market
Hawaii's higher
education institutions to
international students.
The original request was
for $150,000 for
marketing.

Anti-bullying
HB 819 HD1

Requires public schools

and other state agencies
and grantees that serve
youth to adopt bullying
prevention policies. Establishes a task force to
assist the governor with
bullying prevention policies in the State.
FAILING

University
autonomy

Micro-beads ban
HB 621 HD1

Protects marine life by

gradually prohibiting the
manufacture and sale of
personal care products
containing synthetic
plastic micro-beads.

Cigarette litter fee

HB 749

Imposes a new beach

clean-up cigarette fee
for each cigarette sold.
Allocates money from
the new fee to the
Beach Clean-Up Special
Fund for litter removal
from beach lands.

Media access

Increases the states

renewable energy goals
to 70 percent by 2035,
and to 100 percent by
2050 unless the
acquisition of renewable
energy is not beneficial
to Hawaiis economy.
House Bill 623 HD2
imposes similar
requirements.

Allows the news media

to access areas that are
closed pursuant to
emergency management
powers of the governor
and mayor. The media
will be under the
supervision of
emergency management
agency personnel.
SB 286 SD2

SB 359 SD1

Establishes the Office of

the State Inspector
General to investigate
complaints alleging
fraud, waste, abuse, or
corruption by a state
agency or quasi-public
agency, or the officers or
employees of a state
agency or quasi-public
agency.

Increases the portion of

the state oil barrel tax
that is deposited into the
environmental response
revolving fund, energy
security special fund,
and agricultural
development and food
security special fund.
House Bill 1087 HD1
also adjusts the oil tax
distribution.

Cable cutoff
HB 1468 HD2

Repeals the authority of

the Public Utilities
Commission to create a
regulatory framework for
establishing an electric
transmission cable
system between the
islands.

Teachers tax break

Exempts a portion of a
rent paid by teachers
from the general excise
tax.

Cut programs
Requires that any undergraduate degree-granting program that
graduates less than ten
graduates per year be
abolished. Provides an
exception for undergraduate programs that are
self-sustaining.

Land transfer
Allocates more than
1,400 acres of University
of Hawaii lands in West
Oahu to allow development of affordable housing, and to generate
income for University of
Hawaii-West Oahu.

Investigate a possible
land swap of state lands
possibly including the
Oahu Community
Correctional Center site
in Kalihi in exchange for
agricultural lands owned
by Dole Food Co.

Governors
expenses

HB 321 HD 1

Establishes a system of
up to 26 medical
marijuana dispensaries.
Clarifies the right of
qualifying patients and
primary caregivers to
transport medical
marijuana.
HB 1075 HD2

SB 1291 SD2

Authorizes the Maui

hospital system to enter
into an agreement with
Hawaii Pacific Health to
transition one or more of
its facilities into a new
private Hawaii nonprofit
corporation. The bill
specifies Maui Memorial
Medical Center, Kula
Hospital and Clinic and
Lanai Community
Hospital as candidates
for the non-profit.

Prohibits schools and

landlords from
discriminating against
medical marijuana
patients, and prohibits
courts from denying a
parent custody or
visitation rights with
children because of
medical marijuana use.

Safe Places
SB 979 SD1

Requires the Office of

Youth Services to
coordinate a safe places
for youth pilot program
to establish a network of
safe places where youth
in crisis can access
services.

Dental benefits
HB1161 HD1

Appropriates funds to
restore basic adult
dental benefits to
Medicaid enrollees and
provide outreach and
eligibility services for
individuals and families
at federally qualified
health centers.

Hospital raises
SB 1117 SD1

Makes an emergency
appropriation to the
Hawaii Health Systems
Corporation to pay
raises to unionized
hospital workers to keep
the states network of
hospitals operating,
including Maui Memorial
and Hilo Medical
Centers. Gov. David Ige
requested $21 million to
pay the negotiated
raises, but lawmakers
havent finalized the
amount.

Disabled payments

Makes an emergency
appropriation of
$670,400 for the current
fiscal year for the Office
of the Governor to meet
payroll shortfalls.

SB 1107

FAILING

Pesticide buffer

Bus tax credit

Establishes an income
tax credit for taxpayers
who purchase bus
passes or passes for a
public transportation
program.

Bottle ban
Prohibits state agencies
from purchasing singleserving bottled water,
except under certain
circumstances

Shipping fees

FAILING

Firing police chiefs

Provides the mayor of
each county with the
authority to remove the
respective county chief
of police for good and
just cause.

Campaign
contributions
Requires a corporation
to have approval from a
majority of shareholders
to make a contribution to
any candidate, candidate
committee, or
noncandidate
committee. Permits
voting shareholders who
did not approve of the
contribution to request a
prorated reimbursement
of the contribution made
by the corporation

Voting tax credit

Establishes an income
tax credit for voting in
elections.

Metric signs
Requires public signs
expressing
measurements of speed
and distance to be
expressed in both the
United States customary
system of weights and
measures and the metric
system.

Provides discounted
rates and fees for
Hawaii-grown
agricultural products at
Hawaii harbors, wharves,
and properties managed
and operated by the
state Department of
Transportation.

Pension fund
divestment

Fuel cell vehicles

Requires the state

Department of
Accounting and General
Services to upgrade
state fleet vehicles to
hydrogen fuel cell
vehicles.

Requires the state and

counties to purchase a
percentage of fuel cell
electric vehicles in their
total annual purchase or
acquisition of
government motor
vehicles.

Prohibits the Employees

Retirement System from
investing directly in fossil
fuel companies.
Requires divestiture.

Hydrogen vehicles

Land Use
Commission
Abolishes the land use
commission and
transfers its functions to
the counties.

Allows motor vehicle

safety inspections to be
conducted every two
years instead of annually
for vehicles registered in
neighbor island counties;
applies to all counties
except Honolulu.

Marijuana
discrimination

Act 2

Prohibits new installation

of a cesspool and new
construction served by a
cesspool after Dec. 31,
2016. Authorizes DOH
to develop rules for
exceptions.

Safety check
HB 1089 HD2

Maui hospital

Cesspool ban

Amends Hawaiis Right

to Farm Act to ensure
the counties cannot
enact laws, ordinances,
or resolutions to limit the
rights of farmers and
ranchers to engage in
agricultural practices

Would increase the general excise tax by 0.25%

to provide a dedicated
funding source for the
Department of Education.

Jail land swap

SB 1374 SD2

Marijuana
dispensaries

HB 1141 HD2

Right to Farm

Tax for education

Inspector general

Barrel tax

Requires that the state

general treasury pay at
least 60 percent of the
operating costs of the
University of Hawaii. Currently, only about 36 percent of the university
budget is paid from state
general funds.
Would establish the University of Hawaii at
Manoa Athletics Department as an entity governed by a board of
governors. Would authorize the board of governors to select an
athletic director.

Requires the state Office

of Elections to
implement elections by
mail on Kauai beginning
with the 2016 primary
election; and to have
mail-in election for each
neighbor island county
by 2018. By 2020,
requires all counties to
have federal, state, and
county primary, special
primary, general, special
general, and special
elections to be
conducted by mail. The
House approved a
similar plan in HB 124
HD2.
SB 533 SD1

University costs

Athletics oversight

Mail-in ballots
SB 287 SD 2

Renewable energy

Appropriates funds for

the state public charter
school commission to allocate to charter schools
for construction projects.

Charter facilities

Authorizes $12.7 billion

in state spending for the
fiscal year that begins
July 1, and budgets
$13.1 billion for the
following year.

SB 715 SD2

Would establish
disclosure requirements
for outdoor applications
of pesticides in proximity
to schools, childcare
facilities, and certain
commercial agricultural
entities. Establishes
pesticide buffer zones
for sensitive areas.
Establishes penalties.

Proposes a constitutional amendment to revoke the university's

autonomy.

State budget
HB 500 HD1

Makes an emergency
appropriation of
$2.51 million for the
current fiscal year to
address a Department of
Human Services budget
shortfall for general
assistance payments for
food, clothing and
shelter for temporarily
disabled persons.
FAILING

E-cigarette tax
Would establish an
excise tax on electronic
smoking devices equal
to 30 per cent of the
wholesale price, and
allocates the tax revenue
to the Hawaii Tobacco
Prevention and Control
Trust Fund for smoking
cessation programs in
Hawaii, with an
emphasis on teen
smoking prevention.

Welfare benefits
Requires an applicant or
recipient of public
assistance to be a
resident of the state for
at least four months.

Long term care

Provides tax credits to
individual and corporate
taxpayers that pay longterm care insurance
premiums.

Leasing state
hospitals
Authorizes the Hawaii
Health Systems
Corporation to mortgage
its real property.

Marijuana
prescriptions
Provides that a physician
may determine what
medical condition
qualifies a patient to use
medical marijuana.

Vietnam
anniversary
HB 564

Appropriates funds for

programs, ceremonies,
and activities
commemorating the
50th anniversary of the
Vietnam War. The
amount of funding is not
specified.

Shield law
HB 295 HD1

Limits compelled
disclosure of sources or
unpublished information
by journalists,
newscasters and
persons participating in
collection or
dissemination of news or
information of substantial
public interest.
Establishes exceptions.

E-cigarette
restrictions
SB 757 SD2

Prohibits the use of

electronic smoking
devices in places where
smoking is prohibited.

Industrial hemp
SB 375 SD 2

Authorizes the growing

of industrial hemp for
certain purposes under
specified conditions.
Appropriates funds for
Department of
Agriculture staff to assist
in registration of
industrial hemp growers
and seed testing.
FAILING

Mobile homes
Requires the
Department of Land and
Natural Resources in
consultation with the
Department of Human
Services to establish
mobile home parks
throughout the state for
individuals whose family
income is no more than
250 per cent of the
federal poverty level.
Allows private sector to
develop mobile home
parks.

Workforce housing
Requires HCDA to
establish rules to require
reserved and workforce
housing in
developments.

Child support
Authorizes the Child
Support Enforcement
Agency to pursue
support payments for
children born to a minor
from any parent of the
minor.

Transit
development
Authorizes the Hawaii
Housing Finance and
Development
Corporation to make
grants to counties to hire
contract workers to
expedite city permits to
encourage development
of affordable housing as
part of transit-oriented
development.

Foreclosure
seizures
Prohibits lenders from
pursuing other assets of
homeowners if the value
of a home repossessed
by the lender in
foreclosure is less than
the mortgage.

Organic waste
Prohibits the disposal or
transfer of commercial
organic waste in landfills
in the state. Requires all
generators of
commercial organic
material to use
alternative means of
disposal, such as
donation, compost,
anaerobic digestion, or
animal feed.