Lawmakers keep tourism agency funding alive

Lawmakers kept the Hawaii Tourism Authority alive by amending House Bill 1147, originally a capital improvements bill, just after Friday’s deadline for fiscal bills.

Passage of HB 1147, which was relabeled as a supplemental appropriations act in a legislative conference committee, was a surprise turnaround for HTA. The agency and its supporters worked late Thursday and Friday to secure their funding, which was not in the state’s budget bill.

“Our team is incredibly grateful for the leadership of the House and Senate, resulting in (Friday’s) agreement that continues the Hawaii Tourism Authority’s work to malama Hawaii through destination management and visitor education,” HTA President and CEO John De Fries said in a statement.

State Rep. Richard Onishi (D, South Hilo-Keaau-Honuapo), chair of the House Labor and Tourism Committee, said HB 1147 allocates $60 million in recurring general funds to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism to release to HTA.

It also provides a $28.5 million expenditure ceiling for the Hawai‘i Convention Center’s enterprise special fund and $100,000 for the University of Hawaii.

“I had to go to (House Finance Committee Chair Sylvia Luke) to say, ‘Hey it looks like the two HTA bills are not going to move, and we are going to have a problem because they close the budget on Wednesday and we’ll have a problem with the funding of HTA,’” Onishi said. “I kind of left it up to her to figure out how can we do this.”

Luke (D, Punchbowl- Pauoa-Nuuanu) and Senate Committee on Ways and Means Chair Donovan Dela Cruz (D, Wahiawa-Whitmore-Mililani Mauka) could not be reached for immediate comment.

HB 1147 still needs approval from both the House and the Senate on final reading Thursday. If approved, it would be sent to Gov. David Ige for consideration.

“I would have preferred that we had been able to settle this issue earlier on in the session,” Onishi said. “But HTA is always a controversial agency to work on. A lot of people have different opinions on what HTA should be doing and how much they should be funded and how they should be funded. It has been work to try to get their budgets every year.”

The last-minute changes to the measure could still trigger challenges about whether it tests the limits of a recent “gut and replace” court ruling. The bill automatically carried over to this year’s legislative session in the second year of the Legislature’s biennium. As late as Wednesday, HB 1147 was put on a conference committee hearing notice as a bill about capital improvements.

Lawmakers deferred taking action on the bill until Friday’s conference committee hearing when Luke said, “This is to clean up some of the budget items, including the HTA budget since now we have an agreement.”

There was no further discussion, and lawmakers took about a minute to advance the bill.

Keli‘i Akina, president and CEO of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, said: “Tourism is a valuable part of Hawaii’s economy, but that does not excuse trying to fund the HTA through ‘gut and replace.’ The practice excludes public input and was ruled unconstitutional by the Hawaii Supreme Court just six months ago.

“My hope is that our lawmakers recognize this as a historic opportunity to chart a new course in state tourism policy by letting the industry stand on its own. The time has long passed since the industry has been able to pay for its own marketing and management.”

HTA was in a precarious position Thursday when lawmakers blew past a hearing scheduling deadline due to conflicts over whether to fund HTA through House Bill 1785 or Senate Bill 775.

Onishi said the House preferred SB 775, which would have funded HTA without micromanaging it while also creating an additional agency, a Natural Resource Management Commission, with an appropriation of $30 million.

Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi- Salt Lake-Aliamanu) said the Senate favored an amended version of HB 1785, which would have reorganized HTA and designated how much of its budget should be spent on administration costs and the agency’s “four pillars”: natural resources, Hawaiian culture, community and brand marketing.

Onishi said he will work on legislation for 2023 that supports a tourism governance study and establishes the natural resource commission.

Wakai said he is satisfied with the outcome of this year’s session, provided HTA’s board and staff keep their HB 1147 negotiation promises to implement the Senate’s reorganization plan and move to performance- based marketing contracts.

“If they don’t, there’s going to be, I’m sure, fallout next year,” he said.