House Standing Committee on Tourism

Good morning, and welcome to the, actually a joint hearing of the Committees on Economic Development Technology and the Committee on Tourism. It is Wednesday, February 4, 2026 at 10:00am. We're in Conference Room 423 at the Capitol, 415 South Beretania Street. My name is Ikaika Hussey. I'm the Vice Chair of the Committee on Economic Development Technology.

We're joined this morning by Chair Ilagan from ECD as well as Chair Tam and Vice Chair Templo of the Tourism Committee and Representative Joe Gedeon. Let's see. Okay. Because morning hearings must adjourn prior to floor session, not all testifiers may have the opportunity to testify.

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Such behavior may be grounds for removal from the hearing without the ability to rejoin. We're now open for testimony. We'll begin with HB 1943 with Director Tokioka from DBEDT in support.

Aloha Chair Ilagan Chair Tam and Committee Members Vice Chair. Also Dennis Ling with the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. DBEDT stands in support of this measure. Korea is a very important market to us on many levels. Investment, trade and also tourism.

We feel given their strong economic standing and cultural connections with Hawaii, we can operate a very worthwhile and productive office in Korea. Thank you very much.

We now have Mr. Erdman from the Retail Merchants of Hawaii.

Good morning. Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, my name is Dave Erdman. I'm the Interim President and CEO of Retail Merchants of Hawaii. I am also a board Member and media past Chair of the Hawaii Pacific Export Council. Both organizations support HB 1943. I have three key points.

HB 1943 expands export opportunities for Made in Hawaii products and those of RMH Retail Merchants of Hawaii. Member companies in key Asia markets out of state offices help retailers and manufacturers connect to buyers, distributors and logistics partners beyond Hawaii and the US Mainland.

This is especially helpful to small mid sized companies that cannot enter foreign markets in easily on their own. RMH stands ready to collaborate with the Hawaii Pacific Export Council, DBEDT and the Seoul, Taipei and Beijing offices.

Retail Merchants of Hawaii does encourage DBEDT to continue its partnership with the Hawaii Pacific Export Council on its High Step Program or Hawaii State Trade Expansion Program for Export readiness where we offer programming and seminars and include the new Seoul office and HPEX programming and country focus for 2027 and after after the office opens.

We encourage new Seoul office to also collaborate closely and take full Advantage of the U.S. Commercial Service Office in Seoul and Taipei and also the US Commercial Service here in Hawaii to connect on information sharing services and best practices for exporters. HB 1943 is a smart investment in economic diversification and global competitiveness. We support the Bill.

Thank you very much for your time.

Thank you very much. Now we have Sherry Manor Chamber of Commerce. Thank you. We have a total of four testimonies in support. Zero in opposition. Is anyone else would like to testify?

Thank you Committee. For the record, my name is Russell Honma. I'm the Executive Director for APEC Hawaii. I just the newly authored published book Blueprint.

As you know Korea has hosted the APEC conference last year in November and I know there was a lot of controversy with the trade tariffs issues they had to face as right now Korea is facing 15% tariffs.

So what happened was the Trump Administration decided to increase it 30% seeing that the South Korean government, the Legislature over there hasn't committed their investment monies that they promised. So I think there's a tactic involved that they're roughly paying 30% tariffs into us right now.

So but I know Korea is pushing forward for the Free Trade Agreement status meeting, the APEC bogart doctrine of 2020 as well propaganda were in in Philippines.

When Philippines hosted the APEC conference they came up with a vision by 2040 all Indo Pacific region shall have a free trade area and Hawaii wants to be the first state to be the free trade state meeting that requirement.

So I did come up with a measure from the House Bill 1391 which sits in the community from last year. So we want to massage that Bill. So this will go with the Korea hopefully having a office with DBEDT office so they can have a liaison office there.

So I think we can orchestrate that in a fashion and move in that direction. We can work with California Even with the Apex national center in Seattle. They're supporting my book, Making Hawaii the Free State for Free Trade area of Indo Pacific Region. Thank you for giving the opportunity.

And I did give a signed copy to follow your legislative colleagues. So you guys are lucky. Or the global leaders get a copy of my signed book. And I did give a E book on the Internet, so you guys have a website for that for a free complimentary copy. Thank you.

I'd like to remind the testifiers to please direct your comments to the Committee. Thank you very much. Okay, Anyone else like to testify? Okay. Any questions from the committees? Okay, very good. We'll move them to HB1612 with Jennifer Chun from DBEDT.

Aloha, Chair, Vice-Chair, and Committee Members. We stand on our written testament.

Thank you. Mr. Tokioka from DBEDT. Okay, let's see. Now we have Lauren Zirbel from the Hawaii Food Industry Association.

Not present.

Non present. Okay. Sherry Menor from Chamber of Commerce.

[Inaudible]

Thank you. Matt Pearlberg from the Holomua Collaborative.

Chair, Vice Chair. Josh Wisch for Holomua Collaborative in place of Matt this morning. We'll largely stand on our testimony in support. Just wanted to underscore one thing that we note in the testimony is that Hula Mua Collective did our annual affordability survey last year. Large sample size, 3200 people ranging for profit, nonprofit, government labor.

And these are just local employees. And even in that survey, only 19% of people said that they thought Hawaii was a good place to do business, which I think just underscores how widely aware people are of the challenge. And so things like this would be a good way to help. Thanks so much. I'm here for any questions.

Thank you. We have 11 testimonies in support, none in opposition. Would anyone else like to testify? Dr. Colby.

Aloha. My name is Seth Colby. I'm the Acting Director of Budget and Finance. I just wanted to support this bill and give you a little bit of context. I've served on the Business Revitalization Task Force as a Member of Department of Taxation.

I also served as the Executive Administrator, something like that, for the Business Revitalization Task Force in my capacity as the Chief Economist. And so I wanted to. And now, as the acting Director of B&F, I just wanted to highlight that, you know, I'm here and I'm present. I was involved in the architecture and the building of this bill.

If you guys have any questions. One of the things that's essential for the State of Hawaii is economic growth. Right? UHERO just put out this big study today, and what they found was if you just focus on cost of living, that's not enough. You also need to support it with economic growth.

And one of the big challenges with, for us is we are operating in the marketplace of the United States. Right?

And so having a comparative ranking where we do business, how our business is fare relative in our business environment, fares relative to the rest of the United States, is an important indicator because businesses can choose where to locate themselves and entrepreneurs can choose where to locate themselves.

And that is one of the reasons why we focus on this. The other issue is, you know, in the long term, in terms of our budget, in terms of opportunity for our people, economic growth really underscores all of that. So I'm available for any questions. Thank you.

Anyone else likes to testify? Yay. Very good. Any questions from the committees? Okay, thank you. That was HB 1612. We're now going to—we're now going to move on to HB 1614 with Trung Lam from HTDC.

HTDC is 100% focused on economic growth and we stand on our.

Thank you. Lawrence Erbal from HFIA on Zoom. Okay. And Sherry Menor from Chamber of Commerce. Okay, very good. We have four in support, none in opposition. Would anyone else like to testify this morning? Anyone on Zoom? Are there any questions from the committees? Thank you very much.

We're going to move to HB 1968 with Mary Alice Evans from the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development.

Aloha, Chairs, Vice Chairs, Members of the Committee. Diana Settnes with the Office of Planning and Sustainable Development. OPSD stands on its written comments, and we are available for any questions.

Thank you. We also have Lauren Zurbell from HFIA. Okay. Sherry Menor from Chamber of Commerce. Thanks. And then, also, Holomua Collaborative.

Thanks so much. We'll also stand on our testimony.

Thank you very much. And Angela Young. Okay. We have a total of, let's see, that is nine testimonies in support, one in opposition, and one comment. Are there any—is there anyone else who would like to testify in this measure? And are there any questions from the Committee Members? Okay, thank you very much.

We're going to go down now to 1967, HB 1967. We have Debora Halbert from University of Hawaii.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Debora Halbert, Vice President for Academic Strategy. We stand on our written testimony, but I did want to extend the offer to meet with the committee to discuss pathways and other potential ways we could help resolve that problem, given our programming that we already have noted in our testimony, as well as anything else we could work with you on. Thank you.

Thank you very much. Mary Alice Evans from OPSD.

Chairs, Vice Chairs, Members of the Committee. Diana Setness with the Office of Planning Sustainable Development. OPSD stands on its written testimony in support, and I'm available for any questions.

Thanks. Sherry Menor from Chamber of Commerce. And Holomua Collaborative. Just put this on a loop. Would anyone else like to testify? Any questions from the Committee Members? We have a total of seven testimonies in support, none in opposition, with one of the comments. There's no one else.

And we're going to move on to HB 1589. Let's see, we have Director Tokioka from DBEDT, board representative. Okay, great, thanks. See, we have Caroline Harirao from Executive Office on Aging. Okay, we're going to move then to Colby Chalk Alzheimer's Association on Zoom, I believe. Okay. And Hayden Cobb.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice chair, Members of the Committee, my name is Hayden Cobb and I stand before you representing my parents who passed away and all those who are impacted by dementia. This disease took my dad's life after he battled with it for five long years.

And not long after that, my mom passed away from liver cancer. Both my parents endured a lack of compassion and support that not only their workplaces showed, but all the businesses my family came across that weren't aware of what dementia was and how harmful this disease is.

Which is exactly why I'm in full support of HB 1589, which is a Bill that focuses on implementing dementia training programs within the business community. This Bill has the ability to create a safer environment for families impacted by dementia while removing a negative stigma for consumers in the business community.

Businesses that take the time to get dementia training build a more sustainable foundation within their business by gaining the proper knowledge on how to work with those living with dementia, which is a demographic that is becoming more prevalent in Hawaii.

If there's anything I learned from my parents death, it's that we leave this world with the impact of that we make on other people's lives. So I ask each and every single one of you to ask yourself, what kind of impact do you want to make on the lives of those who need it?

On behalf of my lost loved ones and those impacted by dementia, thank you for allowing me the opportunity to testify in support of this Bill.

Thank you, Hayden. Thanks for sharing your story. Let's see, we. I think that's all the testifiers that Signed up. Is there anyone else who would like to speak on this measure? Oh, excellent.

We're so passionate about all these bills that we were right outside the door. We apologize. We stand in support of the intent of this Bill. It's good policy to be able to make our businesses dementia friendly. And we are willing to provide a list of different trainings that businesses could use.

We also have branding that we put together that could be used on certificates or websites saying that they're dementia friendly or dementia champions, business champions. And all that we ask of DBEDT is they can help with the dissemination of the information out to the different businesses. And so thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you very much. Apologize for being late.

No problem. Thanks. Anyone else like to speak?

I'm sorry, chairs and vice chair and Committee Members. I missed a call. When you call DBEDT, DBEDT has comments to provide. We feel this measure would be better served by those with the expertise in dementia.

We sympathize with, you know, the speakers that have preceded me, and we understand this is a very important issue, and to better serve it, it probably should be at another agency. It's not an economic development issue in the sense of workforce development. And we feel that we can best serve by making the training known.

The main cost of this training would be the training. It would not be in the dissemination of the information or the certification of businesses. It would be in the training of it. And it's better served should someone be involved in dementia expertise to handle this. And we stand in, you know, support of the effort.

But we wanted to offer these comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Anyone else?

Chair, Vice Chair Hussy and Members of the Committee. I'm Coby Chock with the Alzheimer's Association. We're in support of this measure. This will really, really be a help for all of the families impacted by Alzheimer's, the caregivers, and then the individuals living with the disease as well.

You know, we have a few amendments that we submitted in our testimony, just fixing some things. As DBEDT mentioned, they don't have the expertise in Alzheimer's and training. And that's where kind of EOA would come in and kind of do that legwork, put the pieces together.

And the Alzheimer's association is dedicated to this cause, so we could provide this training to the businesses for free at no cost.

So the businesses would essentially be able to reach out to either EOA or DBEDT, however they figure it out, and then connect the business with the Alzheimer's association or other nonprofits who are part of the Hawaii Dementia Initiative.

And at that point we can do the training and then get them the badge that says that they were trained. And now a Dementia Business Champion, which is the other amendment that we have here, which is to replace business friendly that's in the Bill with Dementia Business champion.

Because EOA already does have the design work done for this through other funds and initiatives that they were running. So this kind of streamlines the implementation of this and gets this program going sooner and more efficiently. Thank you.

Thank you very much.

Any other testifiers? Thank you. Are there any questions from the Committee Members? Okay, very good. Moving then to HB 1608, we have Dr. Colby from Department of Budget and Finance. I think he may have left the room. Okay, we're going to, let's see. Next up is Jason Lee from Phoenix Space Inc., on Zoom.

Yes.

Okay, great. Thank you. Go ahead.

Chair Ilagan, Vice Chair Hussey, and members of the community, thank you for the opportunity to be here today. My name is Jason Lee and I'm the Founder and CEO of Phoenix Space. We're a US aerospace company proposing tow launch operations for responsive space access at Hilo International Airport.

And we're grateful for the chance to work with Hawaii as a potential long term partner. Currently, low cost space access is a two year wait to a fixed orbital destination.

Our system builds on NASA's Tow Glider Air Launch System heritage and is designed to provide rapid, on demand, and affordable access to space within 24 hours to any orbit. At its core, this is about using familiar aviation methods, similar to sailplane towing, to make space access safer, lower impact, and more practical.

HB 1608 helps make that possible without putting taxpayer funds at risk since the bonds are repaid from project revenues. For us, Success in Hawaii means local hiring, partnership with local industry, the University of Hawaii and Hawaii Community College, and growing at a pace the community is comfortable with. We respectfully ask for your support.

We've submitted our written testimony and look forward to answering your questions. Mahalo.

Thank you very much. Trung Lam, HTDC.

Aloha, chairs, vice chairs, and members of the committee. I submit written testimony, I just have a couple additional comments I'd like to add and highlight.

One, the access to capital that the spur provides is one of the key, if not the key, diversification measure to grow the space sector, which I share that HTDC is trying to focus on.

And number two, we have met and we're working with the Department of Transportation, Senator Inouye, and the Mayor of the Big Island and they all are in support of this project. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much. We have a total of two testimonies in support, two with comments. Is anyone else interested in testifying? Russell.

Thank you, representative, to give me the opportunity to testify. This is my 37th year being at the State Capitol, being I started as a Legislative Aid so please take care of your legislative aid.

They can turn out to be somebody important, can help out the state economy and everything, so. But I did work for state DOT as well and when I was working for the state DOT, my project was doing the spaceport, doing the logistics, and getting the players together and back then, we had like the Japanese investors, Nishoiwai, Nissan. Nissan Motors had this space agency and Ishikawaji Harumi had shooting rockets down in south in Japan but Nagasaki area, but anyways, they had all proven track record, but we were going to do the space port and shoot satellites back in the 1990s.

This is back then when John Wahaye was the Governor and we're pushing for that measure. So, then, this geothermal project happened and they were shooting all this software, so, you know, the community was against spaceport and that kind of died out.

But eventually, we came up with the PISES, Pacific International Space Exploration Systems, part of DBEDT with the state. That was like 20 years ago or so and I know George Ariyoshi was one of the conduit of pushing for that measure back then too.

So, what I'm trying to say that we should look into the history of what happened with Hawaii with the space program.

We need to proceed with PISES as well because PISES played a major role of having this research and develop with the rover robotics with the Mars Mission and we had an incubator with the UH having a terrain like how the moon was and we had people in there for like six months to see the condition, the psychological effects that's going to affect on the astronauts that that they go to eventually have a moon lunar base there and with the Mars mission. And we're going to have a brand new international space station because I know that President Donald Trump has numerous Executive Orders and he came up with the Executive Order on the space technology program by year 2030, which is four years from now, we're going to try to establish a brand new international space station with our international partners from the European Space agency, the APEC organization, JAX, NASA is supporting this, SpaceX, Blue Origin, all those people are supporting.

So, we've got our defense military, defense contractor, who's got a lot of money now because the war going on, so they're going to be investing ton of money into this brand new international space program, get ready for the Mars mission. But we want Hawaii to be a player.

We want to get that space program, aerospace program, and prove that we can still proceed with our PISES Program. Hopefully, you know, to me, you know, I wanted to get the TMT telescope program, you know, world largest telescope, but that didn't seem to iron out.

So, we need to revisit that issue again and get that TMT telescope going here in Hawaii. But thank you very much for—that was my, my closing of my book blueprint at the back of the page, getting our European Union and APenn organization partners to establish international partners to establish this brand new international space station.

Hawaii can be a player on that one. Thank you very much.

Okay, would anyone else like to testify? Are there any questions from the Committee Members?

Question. Thank you. BNF left, right? They're not in the room.

I don't believe they're here.

Okay. HTDC. The, the timing of this, this project, do you need the money right away? Because BNF's testimony is, and this did happen, right, there was a bond cap issue with our, with our housing projects.

So, we allocated all the bond capacity until 2028. So, the timing of this is for financing of this project. Can you wait till 2028? Because it's all spoken for capacity.

So, the opportunity for aerospace development is right now. And Hawaii has missed out in the past many opportunities because we took a long time to make a move and I just don't want us to miss out on this amazing opportunity.

Yeah, but you understand that it's—we actually allocated it already. So, until 2028, bond capacity for spurs is not available. So, can you wait till 2028?

I am happy to work with you folks to find a solution to this problem.

That'd be good for the Committee. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Any other questions? Okay, we're going to move then to HB 1850. Let's see, we're starting with Department of Taxation.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members, I'm Garrison Kurth for Department Taxation. Department will stand on its testimony. I'm here if you have any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Tom Yamachika, Tax foundation of Hawaii. On zoom, I believe.

Aloha. Colleen Teramae from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii on behalf of our President Tom Yamachika, who's in another hearing. Tax foundation of Hawaii stands on its submitted written comments. Mahalo.

Younghee Overly from Indivisible Hawaii.

Chair, vice chair, Members of Committee Indivisible Hawaii. Stand on our testimony in support.

Thank you. Nicole Wu from Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks on Zoom Aloha.

Chair, Vice chair, Members of the Committee, thanks for hearing this Bill. This is the Bill to increase the capital gains tax here in Hawaii. Currently, we have a tax loophole in this state. We're one of only eight states. My testimony says nine, but I just checked.

And one more state has dropped out of the list of states that give a tax loophole to wealthy people who get a lower tax rate on their wealth. Income from stocks and selling luxury items, other investments, art, antiques. They get a tax break. They pay less in tax than on their regular income.

So they have a lower rate than working people like you and me. Currently, we are one of only eight states that does that. And there's actually two states that tax capital gains at a higher rate because they think that income from wealth should be taxed at a higher rate than working income.

So we are asking for Hawaii to actually make the rate the same as for working people's income, which is a little different from this Bill. The vast majority of states just tax the income from wealth at the same rate as tax from as the tax rate from work.

We've had some analyses done over the years of this, and it's very well targeted at the top. Something like, gosh, I don't have the numbers with me. Something like over 90% of the income from increasing the capital gains rate would come from those at the top 5% of income here in Hawaii. So it's very well concentrated.

The way this Bill is written, it would just raise the flat rate that we have a little bit higher. That means that people at the top would still be getting a tax break because the rate would be lower than their regular tax rate.

And those in the middle class would actually see a tax increase on their small amounts of capital gains because if their current tax rate is lower and we raise it, it's actually an increase on lower income people.

So we think the fairest thing would be just to tax the rate, tax the income from wealth at the same rate as regular income. A few years ago, at another hearing for this kind of Bill, the Department of Taxation did actually recommend that. They said that that would be the easiest thing to do.

So we're hoping that this Bill moves along and that it could be amended to just make it simpler and tax all types of income at the same rate. Thank you for letting me testify. Please pass this Bill.

Thanks. Thank you. Sherry Menorah, Chamber of Commerce. Yes, yes. In opposition, Lynn Matusao. I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing your name on Zoom. Okay.

I'm sorry. Okay. Ms. Devin Thomas from Hawaii Appleseed.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair. Members of the Committee thankful to testify in support of this Bill. My name is Devin Thomas representing Hawaii Appleseed, and we support this Bill for the reasons that have already been outlined.

I don't want to reiterate too much, but the average working family is not going to have hundreds of thousands of dollars in capital gains each year. Capital gains overwhelmingly right they go to wealthier folks who can afford to invest, to have stocks and bonds and all these other assets.

So really, raising the capital gains rate period is going to fall, as Nicole said, you know, overwhelmingly on people who can afford to pay. And we should be making folks who can afford to pay more pay more. That's how we make our tax system more fair.

And overall, we think that, just to echo the other speakers as well, that capital gains should be taxed at the same rate as ordinary income, because right now we're privileging income from investments over income from regular work.

So how is it that someone in the top bracket of 11% is paying a lower rate on their capital gains compared to their income from their job? This can be easily corrected. And it despite that, of course, we still support any attempts to raise the rate period, because that will increase tax fairness. Thank you for the opportunity to speak.

Thank you. And Kris Coffield from Hawaii Public Health Institute.

Good morning, Chair, vice chair, Members of the Committee, I'm Kris Coffield from the Hawaii Public Health Institute. We are also in support of this measure. We would also like to see capital gains taxed at the same rate as ordinary income. We think that's more equitable. But we're in support of this Bill as well.

As you know, at the institute, we work on all kinds of different programs relating to health and food access, and those are just being hammered by federal budget cuts right now. Tens of thousands of people stand to lose health care and Medicaid access. SNAP recipients are seeding benefit reductions. Education funding has been slashed.

Clean energy funding has been slashed. And really, this is a matter of fiscal responsibility. This Bill would raise approximately $85 million according to projections that have been put forward by the by itep, the Institute on Taxation Economic Policy, at a time when we really need it.

It's critical revenue that we need to shore up state programs and our social safety net. As others have said, capital gains are overwhelmingly concentrated at the highest income households, approximately 70 to 80% of all long term capital gains income earned in the state is earned by those making over $400,000 per year.

Just one other thing that I'd like to add. Economic analysts who've done studies on the impact of capital gains in the business community have shown that have found that capital gains have absolutely no negative impacts on business investment.

On the contrary, over the last century, business investment has steadily increased since about 19201930 even when the federal capital gains tax rate was over 40%.

So there doesn't, there doesn't appear to be any evidence that increasing the capital gains tax will have a negative impact on our business community and their ability to be viable and to thrive. So we are in support of this.

We need durable revenue options to strengthen our core safety programs for our keiki, for our kupuna, for working families at this time. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Would anyone else like to testify in this measure?

So I just also wanted that, that if we did what NICUR is suggesting, instead of 85 million, it would be $180 million a year. So not only is it fair, but we could really use that money. And as someone who's retired, who live on capital gain, I'm willing to pay. That's all. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else? Are there any questions from the committees this measure had? I should have mentioned this has 47 testifiers in support, six in opposition, and three with comments. Okay, with that, we are, we are done with receiving testimony and we're going to recess.

Hello, Members. We are back from recess, and now we are going into decision. We are going to the top of the agenda. Just as a reminder to the public that changing the effective date to 3000 gives us time to work out changes in conference and makes one last cleanup before the bill becomes final.

In case you hear me making any amendments on defect effective date to year 3000. All right, Members, we are going to start with HB 1943, and this bill strengthens Hawaii's presence and partnerships in overseas markets like the Republic of Korea. Members, do you have any questions?

With no questions, the Chair recommends page three through four to strike out program purposes seven through 12 and 14, but retain one through six and 15. Renumbers so the total of program purposes is eight. Chair notes the appropriation amount for the out of state office in Seoul, Republic of Korea event testimony of 233,500 in the standing committee report. Chair recommends this bill mentions the out of state office in the Philippines.

Chair notes the appropriation of 50,000 for each of the Beijing, Taipei, and Philippines out of state office to promote made in Hawaii branded products in the standing committee report. Defect effective date to year 3000. Technical amendment for the purpose of clarity, consistency, and style. Any questions regarding the amendments? All right, Vice Chair, please take the vote.

Thank you. We're voting on HB 1943. The Chair's recommendations to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair vote aye. [Roll Call] Okay, thank you very much. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. For the House Committee on Tourism, same recommendation. Any questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none. Vice Chair for the vote.

Okay, voting on HB 1943. Chair and Vice Chair vote aye. We're voting with amendments. [Roll Call] Thank you. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. We are moving on to HB 1614 and this bill brings home more federal dollar. Actually, let's put to 1612. Apologize. Members, we are on HB 1612 and this bill sets a long term goal to make Hawaii's business climate better. Members, are there any questions?

Not the Chair recommends to amend the state goals to reflect top 30 states in the nation for business climate by torture. 2050 ranking 45th or better by 2035, 40th or better by 2040, 35th or better by 2045 and 30th or better by 2050.

Chair recommends to blank the appropriation of 300,000 for the cost of independent research station Staffing, travel and other administrative expenses and to note that amount in the standing Committee report. Chair recommends to add the blank full time employees and to note two FTEs in the standing Committee report.

Chair recommends to strike section B on page five, line seven, stating the Legislature shall deliberate on department's proposals submitted in the department's report and enact legislation to advance the goals set forth in just part. And the reason why is the Legislature and the representatives and Senators will take in the proposals.

But to mandate us to actually enact these goals is relatively interesting to put on a bill. So I'm striking that out. Chair recommends that an annual report will be submitted through 2050, defect effective date to year 3000 and technical amendments for the purpose of clarity, consistency and style. Members, any questions? Vice chair, please take the vote.

We're voting on HB 1612. The Chair's recommendations to pass with amendments. Are there any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservations? Chair, the recommendations.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to HB1614. This bill brings home more federal dollars by creating a dedicated Revolving Fund to cover the state's required matching share to grow tech industries in Hawaii. Members, do we have any questions? No question.

The Chair recommends that priority shall be given to federal grants that leverage state funds at a ratio of not less than one to five, state to federal. Also, priority shall be given to proposals that are projected to generate state revenues.

Chair recommends to blank an appropriation of 10 million for the Revolving Fund and note that amount in the Standing Committee Report. Defect effective date to year 3000 and technical amendments for the purpose of clarity, consistency, and style. Any questions, Members? With no questions, Vice Chair, please take the vote.

Voting on HB1614 recommendations to pass with amendments. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservations? Chair, the recommendations adopted.

Thank you. We are now moving on to HB 1968. This bill makes permitting faster and easier by creating a one statewide intake platform. Members, do we have any questions?

Chair does have some amendments and I just want to let the Members know that when I was chairing the speed task force, there were some issues with having a statewide intake platform. And so what we want to do is take a different turn.

And instead what we will do is the chair recommends to establish a pilot project for an AI supported pre compliance intake platform. So this is a pilot project and in partnership with the counties for single family homes Rather than a one statewide intake platform, a county may apply to DBED for matching funds.

25,000 in state funding which the county must match with 25,000 in county funds. DBED shall select the county to receive funding for the pilot project. This way, DBED will be in partnership with the county and go through this pilot project and hopefully this pilot project is successful and we can roll it out statewide with other counties.

So the Chair recommends to blank those appropriations and note those amounts in the standing Committee report. Defect effective date to year 3000 and technical amendments for the purpose of clarity, consistency and style. Any Members have any questions regarding the amendments?

Chair. I think that may be. And this can be, you know, added later, but you should, because it's a pilot and it's going to be the template for other counties. Maybe in the future you should identify or set what success looks like. Right. Because you got to have a goal for them to meet in every day.

And I don't know how you do that at this point. So that's why I said you should just consider it.

Thank you, Representative Yamashita. I will also add in a recommendation that DBED create some sort of policy and metrics for the counties and that way we understand some sort of measurement of success for with this pilot project. Thank you. All right, any other further questions? With none.

Vice Chair, please take the vote. Voting on HB 1968 recommendations to pass with amendments. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservations? Chair, the recommendations adopted.

Thank you. We are now moving on to the next bill, HB1967. This bill helps fix Hawaii's permitting delays by building a stronger permitting workforce, so state and county agencies have enough trained staff to review permits faster. Members, any questions? No questions.

The Chair recommends clarifying language that the administrating agency, in consultation with the University of Hawaii, may structure tuition incentives as reimbursement, loan repayment, or post-service forgiveness rather than upfront waivers to align with existing financial aid and tuition policies.

Chair recommends to achieve the intent of the bill to leverage existing academic programs and credentials at UH and the community college rather than requiring the creation of new degree programs.

Chair notes the amount of $200,000 for the purpose of this bill in the Standing Committee Report. Effective date to year 3000 and technical amendments for the purpose of clarity, consistency, and style. Members, any questions on amendments? No questions. Vice Chair, please take the vote.

Voting on HB1967. Recommendations to pass with amendments. Any votes in opposition? Any with reservations? Chair, the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Vice Chair. Members, we are moving on to HB1589. This bill helps families of kūpuna for encouraging more businesses to become dementia friendly so people living with dementia can live more safely and with dignity. Chair recommends the. Actually, Members is there any questions?

Chair recommends the Executive Office on Aging, an attached agency to the Department of Health, may support DBEDT by providing a Speaker's Bureau listing of approved organizations that provide dementia training for employees and business recognition by providing images of the Hawaii Dementia Initiative's Fiies for use in badges, decals, or stickers indicating a business has met dementia friendly certification requirements.

Chair recommends on Page 2, Line 13-16, that businesses that apply shall receive a list of approved organizations that provide dementia training for employees. At least 85% of the employees shall complete a one-hour training session to qualify the business as dementia friendly. Chair recommends that a business can be identified as dementia friendly or Dementia Business Champion.

Chair recommends EOA will be the lead on gathering feedback and further information from non and for profit organizations who specialize in dementia.

Chair recommends DBEDT, in coordination with EOA, to draft written guidance and protocols that staff and supervisors can reference when a situation arises involving a customer or co-worker living with dementia, available for those businesses as dementia friendly.

Chair notes that DBEDT's request for 90,000 for training would be offset by training support from EOA in the Standing Committee Report. Defect effective date to year 3000, technical amendments for purpose of clarity, consistency, and style. Members, any questions regarding the amendments? All right, Vice Chair, please take the vote.

Okay, we're voting on HB1589. Recommendations to pass with amendments. Are there any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservations? Hearing none. Chair, the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you.

Members, we are going to move on to HB 1608. This bill supports financing and planning and construction of a space launch platform in Hilo helping attract high growth aerospace investment. Any questions from Members? If not, I have some recommendations.

The Chair recommends to blank the special Revenue bond amount of 40,000 for Phoenix space Inc. And note that amount in the Standing Committee report.

Chair also notes that the special Revenue bond has been allocated on allocated for housing until 2028 and this is the comments from Representative Yamashita in the Standing Committee Report Defect Defective date to year 3000 and technical amendments for the purpose of clarity, consistency and style. Members, any questions regarding the amendments?

If not Vice Chair, please take the vote.

We're voting on HB 1608 recommendations to pass with amendments. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservation? Chair, the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to our last Bill on this agenda, HB 1850. This bill raises more public revenue by increasing capital gains tax rates so that the state has additional funding to invest in essential services. Members, any questions? No question.

The Chair notes that an effective date to apply to taxable years beginning after 12-31-2026 to provide sufficient time to make form instructions and system changes, defect the effective date to year 3000, and technical amendments for the purpose of clarity, consistency, and style. Any questions regarding amendments? Yamashita.

You know, while I believe that this issue needs to be discussed, I also believe that it has to be done more comprehensively. You know, we just heard another measure, House Bill 1612, which is going to try and get us to become higher ranked as far as place to do business.

I think this may go counter to that and that it, while I do believe that it is it needs some tweaking because it does not, it's inconsistent with our income tax rates and other things, but and how we weight it to people should be done more comprehensively.

I've always believed that income needs to come down and we need to weight it onto other things. But Uhero is currently doing a study on the whole state, and I would prefer any major moves like this being we wait until we have that report. But I will support the Chair's recommendation and willing it forward for further discussion. Thank you.

Any further questions? All right, Vice Chair, please take the vote.

[Roll Call]

Thank you, Members, and thank you to the public. This meeting is now adjourned.

Hello everyone. Welcome to the Committee on Economic Development Technology. It is Wednesday, February 4th, 2026 at 11:00am Conference Room 423-State Capitol 415 South Street. And I want to say thank you for being here. We are currently following this agenda for HB 1798. That was a measure heard on Friday January 30th20206.

And we are here for decision making. So at this moment, Members, do you have any questions regarding HB 1798? No question. I want to just state that this Bill helps protect essential services by making it a serious crime to damage critical infrastructure including broadband and cable network.

The Chair recommends to add language from the prosecutor's testimony that damage means any impairment to the integrity or availability of data, a program, a system, a network or computer services.

Chair recommends to add the word Wireless on page 2, line 17 defect effective date to year 3000 and only technical amendments for the purpose of clarity, consistency and style. Members, any questions regarding the amendments? With no question. Vice Chair, please take the vote.

So want to confirm Chair. So we're to vote. We're passing the recommendations to pass with amendments. Yes. Okay. We're voting. HB 1798. Recommendations to pass with amendments. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservation? Chair the recommendation is adopted. I want to note the the absence of Representative Holt.

Thank you so much.

Vice Chair Members, we are now adjourned.