House Standing Committee on Tourism

Good morning, everyone. Convening this morning's hearing for the House Committee on Tourism as well as the House Committee Economic Development and Technology. Today is February 12, 2026. Time is 10:30am. We are here in Conference Room 423. I am joined alongside my fellow counterparts, my Chair for Economic Development and Technology, Rep Ilagan.

For the purposes of hearing the following items, the bills. First up, we have House Bill 1950, relating to the transient accommodations tax. It establishes the state led marketing and branding special fund and requires that a portion of all transient accommodations taxes that would otherwise be deposited into general funds be deposited into the special fund to be used for state led marketing, branding, and tourism management.

It requires the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to develop and submit to the legislature an annual comprehensive marketing, branding, and tourism management plan. First up, we have the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Aloha, Chairs, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee. Caroline Anderson with the Hawaii Tourism Authority. We stand on our written comments with support. And just we support this because it provides for a dedicated source of funding, predictable source of funding to do marketing, branding, and tourism management activities. Thank you.

Thank you. Next up on Zoom, we have Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Good morning, Chair and Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Tom Yamachika from Tax Foundation of Hawaii. Our concern is not with the proposed activities, you know, tourism, marketing. We're okay with that. We are, we do have a problem with the special fund, and the reason for that is that it undermines, you know, the ability of you folks, the legislature, to redirect funds in the case of extreme need and where priorities demand.

You know, something else like wildfires or dilapidated facilities in the university or in the schools or stuff like that. That's why there are standards in the law that need to be followed, specifically 37-52.3, establishes standards for special fund, and none of them are met here. And that's why we have some concerns about the proposed special fund and the earmarking mechanism in the bill. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you for your attention.

Thank you. That's all that we have signed up to testify. Is there anyone else who would like to testify on this measure, such as the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism?

Thank you, Chair. Yes. That's me. In strong support. I would just echo the comments earlier of Caroline Anderson. We all know that tourism right now is down, and this is one of the ways that we feel could help us in bringing visitors back. I'll give you an example, Chair. An unrestricted amount of funds, the restricted amount of funds that were in DBEDT, the governor released for Maui, the wildfires, and promote tourism.

$6 million was spent, and it was a noticeable difference in the impact year over year. It was 15% of West Maui's occupancy that went up, and we can attribute that specifically to the additional funding that was put in for support. So for those reasons and what, Ms. Anderson said earlier, we are in strong support. Thank you.

Thank you. Chair wants to note that we do we did receive support testimony from the Kohala Coast Resort Association and the Grand Naniloa Hotel. Is there anyone wishing to testify on this measure in person? Anyone else on Zoom? Okay. Seeing none, we'll move into questions. Members, any questions? Okay. Chair does have a question for DBEDT.

Yes, Chair.

According to this bill, it looks like they're asking for, it's asking for 15%. Correct? Do you know how much that would be in from the allocated from, like, let's say, 2025 or... 122 million. Okay. Alright. Do you think that's I think that's... Alright.

I'm sure as these bills move along, the legislature is gonna come up with, if it passes, the sweet spot of what we can afford and what you all feel is necessary to promote the industry. So.

My next question is, if we establish this fund, do you think there's still a need for a tourism emergency fund?

That's an interesting question because it could later on down the line if something like COVID hits or something like the wildfires hit, then yes. But, you know, anytime you get something like that, we're gonna have to come and get buy in from the legislature. It's not gonna be in a vacuum at HTA and or DBEDT to use those funds, and the governor would have to approve it. So I think you would wanna leave as many tools on the table to address these issues. And so in my opinion, I would say, yes. We should still leave the emergency fund as an additional tool.

Thank you. Members, any other questions?

Seeing none, we'll move on to our next item on the agenda, which is House Bill 2268 relating to Film Production. Adds the marketing and promotion of film production as a power of the Hawaii Tourism Authority. First up, we have Will Kane from the Office of the Governor.

Aloha, chairs, vice chair, and members of the committee. I'm Angie Chapman with the Governor's Office on behalf of Will Kane, Senior Advisor. The Office of the Governor stands on its written testimony and strong support. Aloha.

Thank you. Next up, we have the Hawaii Tourism Authority.

Aloha, Caroline Anderson with HTA. We stand in support of our written testimony. Thank you.

Next up, we have next up. We're gonna move to individuals who wanna testify. Next up, we have Joshua Meredith in person. Sorry. Joshua Meredith here. Oh, sorry.

Mark Rosner?

Next up, we have Irish Barber from the

Aloha.

Aloha. Chairs Tam and Iligan, Vice chairs Templo and Hussey, and committee members. Irish Barber, President of the Hawaii Film Alliance. And on behalf of our members, we stand on our written testimony in support of HB 2268 and just wanna emphasize that movies and TV shows bring tourists to Hawaii. In 2022, those tourists who came here because of a TV show or movie they saw spent $1,000,000,000 that year in Hawaii.

That equated to $121,000,000 in state tax revenue, and that's before you add in the state taxes paid by the film crew or the supporting vendors. If the bill passes, we look forward to future conversations with HTA on how best to promote the film industry, which has very different needs than tourism.

Mahalo for the opportunity to testify and happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. That is all that we have signed up to testify. Chair wants to know that we did receive testimony from the Activities and Attraction Association of Hawaii, the International Cultural Arts Network, the Hyperspective Studios, Tyler Young Films, SAG Astra, and the Teamsters Local 996, and the Kapolei Chamber of Commerce, all in support and one individual in opposition.

Is there anyone else wishing to testify on House Bill 2268?

I'm sorry, Chair. For our test my testimony didn't reach your office, but I stand in strong support of our testimony. But I also wanted to add that the Governor, as was mentioned earlier, you know, he's been a 100% support of the industry. And our discussions to create this committee at HTA was a big topic of his to get more exposure for the industry and to have a better connectivity between the visitor industry and the film industry.

So for those reasons and the ones that are in my testimony that I'll make sure you get, we stand in strong support. Thank you.

Thank you. We're gonna move into questions. Members, any questions?

Question for HTA.

Is there an estimated cost that you that would be required to implement this with any full time employees?

We're gonna be using our existing staff.

And then as far as the estimated cost?

I'm sorry. I don't have an estimated cost for you, but we'll be using our existing staff to help implement this.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Members, any other question?

Seeing none, we'll move on to our next item on the agenda relating to taxation increases. The filing thresholds for the general excise tax, and the transient accommodations tax.

First up, we have Department of Taxation.

Morning, chair, vice chairs, and committee members. Gary Suganuma for Department of Taxation. Essentially, what this bill would do, it would increase the filing thresholds for DT and DT filers. So some monthly filers will now be eligible to file quarterly and some quarterly file filers will be shifted to semi annually.

The concern with that is that right now, currently under the current law, monthly filers are required to e-file. They are not allowed to paper file. And that's advantageous to the department. You know, our position all along is we've been trying to expand our e-filing offerings for the public. It's a lot more efficient for us to process returns filed electronically.

And so contrary to what's in the bill, this actually wouldn't ease our administrative burden. So it could create more burdens if current monthly filers that are required to file electronically now get shifted to the quarterly filers and they don't have to file electronically and they start submitting paper filings, then that actually increases our administrative burden. And so I would just like to highlight that. If you have any questions, I'm here.

Thank you.

Next up, we have Tax Foundation. Comments?

Thank you, chairs, vice chairs, members of the committee. It's Tom Yamachika from Tax Foundation. We'd like to stand on our written testimony. We do note that the filing threshold for e-filing is a separate issue from the threshold for you know, monthly versus quarterly versus semiannual. So, your committees can adjust them independently if you want to.

I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That is all that we have signed up to testify. Chair wants to know that two other individuals have submitted testimony in support, none in opposition.

Is there anyone wishing to testify on House Bill 2156? Anyone on Zoom?

Seeing that members, any questions?

Okay. We will move on to our next item on the agenda relating house bill 1946 relating to registration of timeshares.

Provides that applications for registration renewals required by Section 514E-10 of the Hawaii Revised Statute shall be deemed approved upon delivery, provides that any amendment to a required timeshare plan registration shall be deemed approved by operation of law on the 45th day after the amendment is submitted to the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs unless the Director issues a deficiency letter within that period, effective January 1, 2027. First up, we have DCCA with comments. Thank you. Next up, we have ARDA.

Blake Oshiro on behalf of ARDA Hawaii. We stand in strong support, and I'm here for questions.

Thank you. Next up, we have Marriott Vacations Worldwide. Thank you. That is all that we have signed up to testify. Chair wants to note that we did not receive any opposition testimony on this measure, but we did receive support testimony from Hilton's Grand Vacations and Travel and Leisure. Is there anyone else who wishes to testify on the measure before us? Seeing none. Is there anyone on Zoom wishing to testify on the measure before us? Seeing none. Members, do you have any questions? Seeing none. Alright. Chair, will call a recess.

Reconvening this morning's hearing for the House Committee on Tourism and the House Committee on Economics and Technology for decision making on the 10:30am agenda in Conference Room 423 on February 12, 2026. First up, we have House Bill 1950, relating to the transient accommodations tax. Chair would like to move this bill forward with amendments. First, we're gonna remove the provisions on page four, lines two to six.

And we are then going to further amend this to blank out the 15% to encourage further discussions. We'll defer the date and add tech amendments. Members, any comments, questions, or concerns? Seeing none, Vice Chair, for the vote.

[Roll Call]

Chair, your recommendation is adopted. Thank you.

Same amendments, Vice Chair.

[Roll Call]

Chair, the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Next up, we have House Bill 2268 relating to film production. The Chair's recommendation is that we amend the measure to say that film productions are that are primarily filmed in Hawaii. We are going to defer the date to encourage further discussion. Members, any comments, questions, or concerns?

Seeing none, vice chair for the vote.

Noting on the absence of Representative Holt for the remaining of the meeting, we're gonna be voting now on HB 2268 with amendments. Chair and vice chair vote aye. Any no's? Any reservations?

Recommendation is adopted.

Members, same amendments. Vice chair, please take the vote.

HB 2268, recommendations to pass with amendments. Noting again the excused absence of Representative Holt for the duration of the decision making.

Any votes in opposition?

Any votes with reservation?

Chair, the recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Next up, we have House Bill 2156 relating to taxation. Chair's recommendation is that we move this forward with a defective date. I think that this is a bill that would be best to have the discussion and for me on finance.

So the only amendment we're gonna make is to defect the date on this to encourage further discussion.

Members, any questions, comments, or concerns? Seeing none, Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on House Bill 2156 with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair vote aye. Any noes? Any reservations? Chair, your measure is adopted.

Members for HB 2156, same amendments.

Voting on HB 2156, recommendation to pass with amendments. Any votes in opposition? Any votes for reservation? Sure. The recommendation is adopted.

Thank you.

Thank you. Next up, we have the last item on the agenda. We have House Bill 1946 relating to registration of timeshares. The Chair's recommendation is that we pass this out with tech amendments, and we will defect the date. I understand that ECCA is in talks with the industry to come up with some form of agreement.

So we're going to move this along to encourage discussion, and we'll see how the bill looks later. But members, any comments, questions, or concerns? And Vice Chair, for the vote?

Voting on House Bill 1946 with amendments. Any no's? Any reservations? Chair, your measure is adopted.

Thank you. And this hearing is now adjourned.