STAND. COM. REP. NO. 505

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1155

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Tourism and International Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1155 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CREATIVE MEDIA INDUSTRY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Assign to the Hawaii Tourism Authority the responsibilities for film, television, digital, and new media development;

     (2)  Repeal the film industry activities within the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and make conforming amendments; and

     (3)  Appropriate funds from the film, television, digital, and new media development special fund to the Hawaii Tourism Authority for implementation of the film, television, digital, and new media development activities.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and Hawaii Tourism Authority.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Taxation.

     Your Committees find that the film industry in Hawaii currently generates approximately $220,000,000 per year in direct spending to the state economy, providing $385,000,000 in economic impact and supporting two thousand film industry-related jobs.

     Your Committees further find that the absence of any representative of the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism on the Hawaii Tourism Authority Board of Directors highlights the absence of a meaningful relationship between these two entities.  Reservations expressed regarding this measure focused largely on the financial obstacles that would face the film industry should this measure be enacted, as funding for film activities originates from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Tourism and International Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1155, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1155, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Tourism and International Affairs,

____________________________ GILBERT KAHELE, Chair

____________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair