HB956

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii's natural resources, including reefs, beaches, oceans, forests, streams, estuaries, and shorelines, provide irreplaceable and invaluable benefits to residents, visitors, and the global community at large. These ecosystems are vital to the State's visitor industry and the resident community's identity.

The legislature also finds that the State's vital ecosystems and the resources they harbor continue to decline due to the lack of adequate implementation of proven and effective conservation approaches and rising pressures of climate change.

The legislature further finds that Hawaii's natural environment faces significant pressure from the heavy use it receives from residents and persons traveling from throughout the world to enjoy the State's natural beauty and resources. Continuing underinvestment in the protection and care of natural resources poses a significant liability to the stability of the State's natural systems, including water quality, economic resilience, and health and safety of the ecosystem.

Hawaii residents already contribute to the protection and management of the State's natural resources through taxes, environmental care and management, subsistence and cultural practices, and civic responsibility driven by values and practices embodied in the state constitution. However, with escalating impacts, there is an immediate need for additional resources to protect, restore, and manage natural and open space resources. It is reasonable and timely to create a permanent fund to protect, restore, and care for these resources.

The legislature believes that it is necessary and appropriate to allocate transient accommodations tax revenues to help offset the impacts and ensure that a positive environmental legacy is left for future generations. A natural resource management special fund with commission oversight will ensure disbursements are targeted to address the purposes of the fund.

The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Establish a natural resource management special fund for the natural resource management commission to address impacts to natural resources and management of natural and open space resources that are important to residents and the visitor industry;

(2) Establish a natural resource management commission to guide and approve the disbursement of moneys deposited into the natural resource management special fund;

(3) Allocate annually, $30,000,000 in transient accommodations tax revenues to the natural resource management special fund;

(4) Allocate $60,000,000 in transient accommodations tax revenues to the Hawaii tourism authority; and

(5) Repeal the transient accommodations tax allocation of $3,000,000 to the special land and development fund.

SECTION 2. Chapter 201B, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding three new sections to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:

"§201B-A Natural resource management special fund; establishment. (a) There is established within the state treasury the natural resource management special fund, which shall be expended by the natural resource management commission to address impacts to natural resources and manage natural and open space resources that are important to residents and the visitor industry, including:

(1) Offsetting adverse environmental impacts caused by resident and visitor use and ensuring that the State's natural and open space resources are maintained for continued use by visitors and future generations, such as projects that directly restore, enhance, and protect, in perpetuity, Hawaii's state-owned natural and open space resources and the State's unique and vulnerable ecosystems;

(2) Protecting, restoring, or enhancing terrestrial or marine natural resources;

(3) Increasing the resilience and adaptation of Hawaii's natural and open space resources with environmentally beneficial strategies to reduce the adverse impacts of climate change, including coastal erosion, sea level rise, ocean acidification, coral bleaching, destruction of reefs, and other impacts;

(4) Removing and controlling invasive species and propagating and planting native species; and

(5) Addressing deterioration and removal of dilapidated, condemned, obsolete, or unused buildings or structures located on state land that could otherwise be used as a public park or open space, particularly when the land is in close proximity to the ocean or coastline and can be revitalized for public use and enjoyment.

(b) The following moneys shall be deposited into the natural resource management special fund:

(1) Transient accommodations tax revenues allocated to the natural resource management special fund pursuant to section 237D-6.5(b);

(2) Appropriations made by the legislature; and

(3) Grants and gifts made to the fund.

§201B-B Natural resource management commission; establishment; powers; duties. (a) There is established the natural resource management commission, which shall be placed within the Hawaii tourism authority for administrative purposes. The commission shall be composed of:

(1) The following ex officio voting members:

(A) The chief executive officer of the Hawaii tourism authority or the chief executive officer's designee, who shall serve as the chairperson of the commission;

(B) The director of business, economic development, and tourism or the director's designee;

(D) The chairperson of the board of agriculture or the chairperson's designee;

(E) The director of the office of planning and sustainable development or the director's designee; and

(F) The head of each county agency functioning as a visitors bureau or if none, a representative of each county's visitor industry, to be selected by the respective mayor; and

(2) The following voting members, who shall be nominated by the officials provided in this paragraph and shall be appointed by the governor in the manner prescribed in section 26-34:

(A) One representative of a nonprofit organization having expertise in impacts to natural resources and the management of natural and open space resources that are important to residents and the visitor industry, who shall be nominated by the chairperson of the commission;

(B) One representative of a nonprofit organization having expertise in addressing deterioration and removal of dilapidated, condemned, obsolete, or unused buildings or structures located on state land that could otherwise be used as a public park or open space, particularly when the land is in close proximity to the ocean or coastline and can be revitalized for public use and enjoyment, who shall be nominated by the director of business, economic development, and tourism;

(C) One representative of a nonprofit organization having expertise in the protection, restoration, and care of terrestrial natural resources, who shall be nominated by the chairperson of the board of land and natural resources;

(D) One representative of a nonprofit organization having expertise in the protection, restoration, and care of marine and coastal natural resources, who shall be nominated by the chairperson of the board of land and natural resources;

(E) One representative of a nonprofit organization having expertise in climate change mitigation and resiliency, who shall be nominated by the director of the office of planning and sustainable development;

(F) One representative from the native Hawaiian community who has expertise in the protection, restoration, care, and interpretation of native Hawaiian cultural resources, who shall be nominated by the chairperson of the commission;

(G) One representative between the age of eighteen and twenty-five years, inclusive, who works or has worked in the field of environmental sustainability or restoration, or both, who shall be nominated by the chairperson of the commission; and

(H) One representative from the visitor sector and tourism industry, who shall be nominated by the chairperson of the commission.

(b) A simple majority of the members shall establish a quorum.

(c) The members shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for expenses, including travel expenses, necessary for the performance of their duties.

(d) The natural resource management commission may hire staff necessary to effectuate the purposes of this section. The staff, at a minimum, shall include one full-time equivalent permanent manager position and one full-time equivalent permanent clerical position.

(e) The natural resource management commission shall:

(1) Expend no more than three per cent of the annual allocation of transient accommodations tax revenues to the natural resource management special fund for administrative and staffing expenses;

(2) Expend revenues deposited into the natural resource management special fund through the provision of grants to state agencies, the counties, and non-profit organizations for the purposes of the fund; provided that no more than five per cent of the moneys disbursed for the grants from the fund may be used for personnel and other administrative costs; and

(3) Promote transparency and accountability in determining the specific uses for and disbursements from the fund, subject to the uses authorized under section 201B-A.

§201B-C Report to legislature. (a) No later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2025 and each year thereafter, the Hawaii tourism authority shall submit a report to the legislature.

(b) The report shall contain information on ways that the natural resources management special fund addressed impacts to natural resources and managed natural and open space resources that are important to residents and the visitor industry during the previous fiscal year and the benefits to the State's natural and open space resources that accrue or will accrue from those expenditures.

SECTION 3. Section 237D-6.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (b) to read as follows:

"(b) Except for the revenues collected pursuant to section 237D-2(e), revenues collected under this chapter shall be distributed in the following priority, with the excess revenues to be deposited into the general fund:

(1) $1,500,000 shall be allocated to the Turtle Bay conservation easement special fund beginning July 1, 2015, for the reimbursement to the state general fund of debt service on reimbursable general obligation bonds, including ongoing expenses related to the issuance of the bonds, the proceeds of which were used to acquire the conservation easement and other real property interests in Turtle Bay, Oahu, for the protection, preservation, and enhancement of natural resources important to the State, until the bonds are fully amortized;

(2) $11,000,000 shall be allocated to the convention center enterprise special fund established under section 201B-8;

(3) An allocation shall be deposited into the tourism emergency special fund, established in section 201B‑10, in a manner sufficient to maintain a fund balance of $5,000,000 in the tourism emergency special fund; [~~and~~

~~(4)~~ $3,000,000 shall be allocated to the special land and development fund established under section 171-19; provided that the allocation shall be expended in accordance with the Hawaii tourism authority strategic plan for:

~~(A)~~ ~~The protection, preservation, maintenance, and enhancement of natural resources, including beaches, important to the visitor industry;~~

~~(B)~~ ~~Planning, construction, and repair of facilities; and~~

~~(C)~~ ~~Operation~~ ~~and maintenance costs of public lands, including beaches,~~ ~~connected with enhancing the visitor experience.~~]

(4) $30,000,000 shall be allocated to the natural resource management special fund established under section 201B-A; and

(5) $60,000,000 shall be allocated to the Hawaii tourism authority.

All transient accommodations taxes shall be paid into the state treasury each month within ten days after collection and shall be kept by the state director of finance in special accounts for distribution as provided in this subsection."

SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $30,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2023-2024 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2024-2025 for:

(1) The purposes of the fund established under section 201B-A, Hawaii Revised Statutes, established by this Act; and

(2) Administrative and staffing expenses for the natural resource management commission to include one full‑time equivalent (1.0 FTE) permanent manager position and one full-time equivalent (1.0 FTE) permanent clerical position.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the natural resource management commission for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $60,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2023-2024 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2024-2025 for operating expenses of the Hawaii tourism authority.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the Hawaii tourism authority for its operations.

SECTION 6. In codifying the new sections added by section 2 of this Act, the revisor of statutes shall substitute appropriate section numbers for the letters used in designating the new sections in this Act.

SECTION 7. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 8. This Act shall take effect upon its approval; provided that the amendments made to section 237D-6.5(b), Hawaii Revised Statutes, by section 3 of this Act shall not be repealed when that section is reenacted on June 30, 2023, pursuant to:

(1) Section 9 of Act 229, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021; and

(2) Section 15 of Act 109, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022.

INTRODUCED BY:	_____________________________

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	956
THIRTY-SECOND LEGISLATURE, 2023
STATE OF HAWAII