July 8-2020: HB460 SD1 — A Draconia Bill

Aloha!

As some of you may have heard, the Hawaii Senate Ways and Means committee pulled off one of their favorite – and undemocratic – maneuvers by taking a bill that had passed through the House, gutted all the language out of the bill and replaced with completely new language and a new topic.

As you may have guessed, the new topic was Transient Vacation Rentals – a favourite target of the Senate Ways and Means committee. The new language in HB460 SD1 is draconian and over the top.

Amongst the provisions of the new bill:
1. Requirement to display your Tax Map Key and your physical address on all your advertising
2. Allowing the counties to create a register of properties available for public viewing
3. Prohibiting advertisting platforms from listing ads which don’t comply
4. The ability for counties to subpoena records from owners and advertising platforms
5. All travellers arriving on the island to provide the complete physical address of the place they are staying, with severe penalties for providing false information.

The problems with this bill are many, but the big issues are:
1. Four counties, four different rules in addition to the State requirements
2. Listing the address along with the calendar is a danger to owners when the property is vacant and to guests when they are in residence. Furthermore, the risk is borne only by legal vacation rentals as illegal rentals are not going to post their info and just keep dodging the law.
3. Providing all of our information in a publically available register is a challenge to our privacy that no other industry is subject to.
4. Shifting the burden of data collection onto airlines is ridiculous and is so fraught with bureaucracy and loopholes as to make it unworkable.
We know that the County of Kauai has recently entered into agreements with AirBnB and Expedia to track vacation rental advertisers through the Tax Map Key, a single point of reference which we think is reasonable.

The County of Maui recently engaged LodgingRev to audit all the advertisements on Maui and after a year of work, concluded that there were only seventeen illegal operations on the entire island.

The Senate has sent the Bill back to the House and the House has stated they disagree with the amendments which means that the bill goes to Conference. There, a select group of Representatives and Senators will meet to attempt to reach a compromise agreement.

While we are all for ensuring vacation rentals are legal, this proposal is too much and too far and we want the House to kill it or water it down to the agreement that Kauai has reached at the most.

Please take a moment to email the Representatives and Senators and express your opposition to this bill. Remember to be polite and thank them for their work.

repaquino@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repbelatti@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repbrower@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repcabanilla@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repcachola@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repcreagan@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repcullen@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repdecoite@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repeli@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repgates@Capitol.hawaii.gov
rephar@Capitol.hawaii.gov
rephashem@Capitol.hawaii.gov
rephashimoto@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repholt@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repichiyama@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repjohanson@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repkitagawa@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repkobayashi@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repdkobayashi@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repkong@Capitol.hawaii.gov
replee@Capitol.hawaii.gov
replowen@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repluke@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repmatayoshi@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repmatsumoto@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repmcdermott@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repmckelvey@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repmizuno@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repmorikawa@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repnakamura@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repnakashima@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repnishimoto@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repohno@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repokimoto@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reponishi@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repperruso@Capitol.hawaii.gov

repquinlan@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repsaiki@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repsanbuenaventura@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repsay@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reptakayama@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reptakumi@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reptarnas@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repthielen@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reptodd@Capitol.hawaii.gov
reptokioka@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repward@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repwildberger@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repwoodson@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repyamane@Capitol.hawaii.gov
repyamashita@Capitol.hawaii.gov

senbaker@capitol.hawaii.gov
senchang@capitol.hawaii.gov
sendelacruz@capitol.hawaii.gov
senenglish@capitol.hawaii.gov
senfevella@capitol.hawaii.gov
sengabbard@capitol.hawaii.gov
senharimoto@capitol.hawaii.gov
senihara@capitol.hawaii.gov
seninouye@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkkahele@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkanuha@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkeithagaran@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkeohokalole@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkidani@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkim@capitol.hawaii.gov
senkouchi@capitol.hawaii.gov

sennishihara@capitol.hawaii.gov
senrhoads@capitol.hawaii.gov
senriviere@capitol.hawaii.gov
senruderman@capitol.hawaii.gov
senshimabukuro@capitol.hawaii.gov
sentaniguchi@capitol.hawaii.gov
senthielen@capitol.hawaii.gov
senwakai@capitol.hawaii.gov
senmoriwaki@capitol.hawaii.gov

Mahalo,

Neal
www.rboaa.org
info@rboaa.org