STAND. COM. REP. NO. 290

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 345

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Technology and the Arts and Commerce and Consumer Protection, to which was referred S.B. No. 345 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PORTABLE ELECTRONICS INSURANCE,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the fees related to portable electronics insurance licenses to align with similar licensing fees in other jurisdictions.  Specifically, this measure increases the initial portable electronics limited lines license fee to $5,000 and the additional license fee to $2,500 per year for the initial or renewal term.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and Asurion.

 

     Your Committees find that portable electronics insurance licenses allow vendors to operate from multiple locations and supervise the sale of insurance by unlicensed individual employees.  Act 321, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012, enacted a regulatory scheme governing the sale of portable electronics insurance by creating a licensing framework under which the retailer holds a license that authorizes its employees to sell insurance products on the retailer's behalf.  This model is consistent with national trends with respect to the regulation of this product as it creates an efficient and fair licensing framework.  One of the differences between the law that was enacted in Hawaii and that of other states is that Hawaii has significantly lower fees for licensure.

 

     Each year, only a handful of portable electronics insurance licenses are issued or renewed, but the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs carries the burden of maintaining a separate license category for those few license holders.  It is appropriate to offset departmental costs of such maintenance and oversight with higher license fees.  This measure increases the license and renewal fees similarly to limited lines motor vehicle rental company producer's license fees and annual licensing fees for all services for regularly licensed limited line motor vehicle rental company producers.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Technology and the Arts and Commerce and Consumer Protection that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 345 and recommend that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Technology and the Arts and Commerce and Consumer Protection,

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair

 

____________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair