Report Title:

DOT; Parking Permits for Persons with Disabilities

 

Description:

Appropriates funds to the counties to administer the parking permit program for persons with disabilities.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

461

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

making an appropriation for the parking permit PROGRAM for persons with disabilities.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that:

(1) The administration of the parking permit program to issue parking placards to qualified persons with disabilities is a state responsibility;

(2) The Uniform System for Handicapped Parking, Public Law 100-641, was enacted on November 9, 1988, and established guidelines for the uniform issuance and use of parking placards to persons with disabilities meeting specific eligibility criteria, thereby allowing them to park in stalls designed and reserved for persons with disabilities;

(3) The federal regulations implementing Public Law 100-641, set guidelines for states to use in establishing a uniform parking system, including the design of the placard, definition of eligible persons, issuance of permanent or temporary placards, and issuance of special license plates;

(4) In 1984, the State statutorily provided for a program to issue parking permits to persons with disabilities;

(5) After the passage of Public Law 100-641, the Hawaii statute was amended several times. Administrative rules to implement the statute were adopted and administered by the department of transportation until June 30, 2000, at which time the administration of the parking permit program was transferred to the disability and communication access board;

(6) The counties have issued the parking placards for persons with disabilities since the inception of the parking permit program, and the issuance process has been functionally integrated into most county offices to the benefit of the public;

(7) Approximately thirty-three thousand removable windshield placards and temporary removable windshield placards were issued last year by the counties to qualified persons with disabilities, and the counties recovered the marginal administrative costs by charging a fee to permit applicants;

(8) The federal courts have ruled that the imposition of a fee on qualified persons with disabilities is an impermissible surcharge under the Americans with Disabilities Act (Dare v. State of California, Case No. 97-56065, filed September 16, 1999, and Emerick v. City and County of Honolulu, Case No. 98-16427, filed December 17, 1999). Consequently, the counties are no longer able to recoup any of the administrative costs related to the issuance of the removable windshield placards; and

(9) It is in the interest of the State to have the counties continue administering the parking permit program on behalf of the State.

The purpose of this Act is to appropriate funds to the counties to cover the administrative costs of the parking permit program in lieu of charging applicants a fee.

SECTION 2. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii to the counties listed below, the following sums or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2001–2002 for the counties to administer the parking permit program and issue removable windshield placards to qualified persons with disabilities:

FY 2001-02

(1) City and County of Honolulu $

(2) County of Hawaii $

(3) County of Kauai $

(4) County of Maui $

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the counties for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.

INTRODUCED BY:

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