REPORT TITLE:
State Fuel Tax Exemption


DESCRIPTION:
Allows Honolulu to operate its mass transit system without having
to pay state taxes on all liquid fuel used for public transit
operations under the city bus and handi-van systems.

 
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                                            1561        
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES                H.B. NO.           
TWENTIETH LEGISLATURE, 1999                                
STATE OF HAWAII                                            
                                                             
________________________________________________________________
________________________________________________________________


                   A  BILL  FOR  AN  ACT

RELATING TO EXEMPTION OF STATE FUEL TAX ON COUNTY TRANSIT
   SYSTEMS.



BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

 1      SECTION 1.  Although the state department of transportation
 
 2 has constructed H-3, and is planning for or constructing and
 
 3 widening various High Occupancy Vehicle lanes and other highway
 
 4 improvements at a cost of hundreds of millions of dollars, the
 
 5 future transportation demands caused by population increases and
 
 6 increases in individual travel, cannot be met by continual
 
 7 highway construction.  A viable solution is to implement improved
 
 8 and expanded county transit systems that would provide more
 
 9 efficient and effective public transit services.  It is the
 
10 purpose of this Act to assist the counties to provide much needed
 
11 additional regional transportation capacity through improved and
 
12 expanded public transit systems to help mitigate traffic
 
13 congestion and enhance the quality of our air and environment by
 
14 exempting the counties from the state fuel tax on all liquid fuel
 
15 used for public transit operations.  The "savings" of some $2.0
 
16 million a year shall be used to improve and expand the county
 
17 transit systems.  The Legislature finds and declares that
 
18 assisting the counties to improve and expand public transit
 
19 systems to help mitigate regional transportation needs is a valid
 

 
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Page 2                                         1561        
                                     H.B. NO.           
                                                        
                                                        

 
 1 public purpose and in the public interest.
 
 2      SECTION 2.  Chapter 243, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended
 
 3 by adding a new section to be appropriately designated and to
 
 4 read as follows:
 
 5 "�243-   Exemption of fuel tax on county transit systems. There
 
 6 shall be exempted from and excluded from the measure of the taxes
 
 7 imposed by this chapter all purchases of liquid fuel used by
 
 8 county owned public transit revenue vehicles."
 
 9      SECTION 3.  New statutory material is underscored.
 
10      SECTION 3.  This Act shall take effect July 1, 1999.
 
11 
 
12                           INTRODUCED BY:  _______________________
 

 
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