STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2205

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2146

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Judiciary and Transportation, to which was referred S.B. No. 2146 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAFFIC INFRACTIONS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish a Traffic Fines Task Force that will examine the Finnish tiered traffic fines system, determine whether a similar system could be implemented in the State, and provide recommendations as to how a system could be best implemented.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Appleseed Center for Law and Economic Justice, Hawaiʻi Bicycling League, and one individual.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and one individual.

Your Committees find that scaled fines are a more effective deterrent than flat fines for traffic infractions. Your Committees further find that the scaled system for traffic fines used in Finland requires an offender to pay a fine proportional to their income. Consequently, wealthy offenders, who are largely unaffected by flat fines, pay higher fines in a scaled system. Your Committees also find that to implement a similar system in the State would require data collection and study. Accordingly, this measure will convene a Traffic Fines Task Force to explore the feasibility of implementing a proportional traffic fines system or a similar system in the State.

Your Committees note the concerns expressed by the Department of the Attorney General that the majority of traffic infractions in the State are prosecuted by the county prosecuting attorneys' offices, rather than the Department of the Attorney General, and those offices are better suited to provide practical insight into how adjustments to the traffic fine system could impact the prosecution of traffic offenses. Your Committees further note the concerns that offenders cited for violating section 291C-104, Hawaii Revised Statues, for speeding in a school zone or construction area are assessed an additional surcharge that is deposited into the Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund, which is administered by the Department of Transportation. Since any modification to the traffic fines assessed for speeding violations may affect the Safe Routes to School Program Special Fund, the Department of Transportation should be a member of the Traffic Fines Task Force.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Including the Director of Transportation or their designee as a member of the Traffic Fines Task Force;

(2) Including the Prosecuting Attorney of each county or their designee as members of the Traffic Fines Task Force;

(3) Inserting a blank appropriation amount; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committees note that this measure, as amended, contains unspecified appropriation amounts. Should your Committee on Ways and Means choose to deliberate on this measure, your Committees respectfully request that it consider an appropriation amount of $10,000.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Transportation that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2146, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2146, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Transportation,

________________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair