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The Hawaii Tourism Authority has the support of state senators who reinstated its $60 million budget, but those same lawmakers want more control over the main tourism agency.
The Senate Energy, Economic Development and Tourism Committee and the Senate Government Operations Committee on Wednesday amended House Bill 1785 to restore HTA’s $60 million budget. But lawmakers want to revamp the agency and, in addition, they want to designate how much of the money should go to administrative costs and the four pillars of the agency: natural resources, Hawaiian culture, community, and marketing of brand.
HB 1785 aims to propose a new model for tourism governance by 2025. But State Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake-Aliamanu), who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development and Tourism, said, “We really see the need for us to take a little action in reorganizing the Hawaii Tourism Authority now.
Sen. Sharon Moriwaki (D, Kakaako-McCully-Waikiki), who chairs the Senate Government Operations Committee, said amendments to the bill specify HTA can spend up to $12.9 million on Hawaiian culture , $7.6 million for natural resources, $16.4 million for community relations, $18.2 million for branding and $3.9 million for administration costs.
Moriwaki said the intention of lawmakers was to lock HTA into their own budget appropriations.
“In the past it was all a big budget, so they used it however they saw fit,” she said. “They are using government money. There must be some degree of accountability.
Additionally, Wakai said the bill would require HTA to base all of its marketing contracts on performance and limit the scope of a contractor’s work to the pillar for which they were hired.
“Let’s say they’re the brander; they should not be allowed to go and engage in other responsibilities and have people less knowledgeable about culture and natural resources and community just because they are the big marketing contractor,” he said. he declares.
Wakai said the committee intended to keep HTA’s 25 employees in the budget; however, it will insert a reorganization charter redefining some of the positions to better fit the four pillars of the agency.
The Senate’s House bill restructuring and attempted HTA reorganization comes as the agency’s funding status in the state budget is undetermined.
HTA had asked state lawmakers to fund a $60 million budget, which included money for the 25 positions and a spending cap of $28.5 million for a special fund for Hawaii businesses. ‘i Convention Center. It also included $64 million in capital improvement funds to fix the convention center’s leaky roof.
However, the state House of Representatives passed a version of the state budget, HB 1600, to the Senate which allocated one dollar to pay for HTA operations and eliminated any money for personnel. The version sent by the Chamber allocated only $1 for the convention center and $1,000 to repair its roof.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee held a hearing Tuesday on the transmitted budget but postponed decision-making until April 5.
The Senate could choose to eliminate HTA funding from the state budget and instead fund it through a bill giving lawmakers more ability to refocus the agency’s mission.
HTA was established in 1998 by statute to serve as the state’s lead tourism support agency. About 20 years ago, lawmakers amended an appropriations bill to require the same contractor to market and manage the Hawai’i Convention Center. It was only a few years ago that this legal obligation was lifted.
These latest proposed changes would take HB 1785 well beyond its original intent to direct the Legislative Reference Office to conduct a study that identifies and analyzes alternative tourism governance systems.
HTA President and CEO John De Fries said at Wednesday’s hearing that HTA supported the earlier version of the legislation.
“The reason we’re supporting this is that HTA over its 20+ year history has served Hawaii well. Can the model be improved? Absolutely. Therefore, we believe that having the Office of Legislative Research conduct the proposed study is the prudent approach to remaking the Hawaii Tourism Authority.
The amended bill is yet another wrinkle for HTA and continues several years of increasingly harsh pushback from state lawmakers, who have criticized the agency’s role in managing tourism.
