STAND. COM. REP. NO. 127

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 1066
                                        




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Economic Development, to which was
referred S.B. No. 1066 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE HAWAII
     TOURISM AUTHORITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:
     
     The purpose of this emergency measure is to appropriate
$31,000,000 out of the tourism special fund to be expended by the
Hawaii tourism authority for fiscal year 1998-1999.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA) and the Hawaii Hotel
Association.

     Your Committee finds that the HTA was to be funded through
its special fund, effective January 1, 1999.  However, the
appropriation was inadvertently omitted from the 1998
legislation, and the HTA is unable to encumber or expend any
funds for the second half of the present fiscal year until an
appropriation is authorized.

     Your Committee is in support of this appropriation measure,
but members have raised a concern about the amount.  In its
recommendations last year, the Hawaii Economic Revitalization
Task force suggested "increased funding for tourism promotion at
the $60,000,000 level."  This measure, had it been for a full
year, would have put that funding level at $62,000,000.


 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 127
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     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Economic Development that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of S.B. No. 1066 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and
be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Economic
                                   Development,



                                   ______________________________
                                   LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

 
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