Bill Text: HI HB2245 | 2022 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Natural Resource Management.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-01-28 - Referred to EEP/LAT, CPC, FIN, referral sheet 3 [HB2245 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2022-HB2245-Introduced.html
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2245 |
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THIRTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2022 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to natural resource management.
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
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 visitors and the global community at large. These natural resources are critical to generating billions of dollars for Hawaii's economy and local community, as well as supporting thousands of jobs.
The legislature further finds that Hawaii's natural environment faces significant environmental pressure from the heavy use it receives from persons traveling from throughout the world to enjoy our state's natural beauty and resources. Continuing underinvestment in the protection and care of natural resources poses a significant liability to the visitor industry, the stability of our natural systems including our water quality, economic resilience, and health and safety of the citizens of the state.
Hawaii residents already contribute to the protection and management of our natural resources through taxes; but with escalating visitor impacts, there is an immediate need for additional resources to protect, restore, and manage natural resources. It is reasonable and timely to ask visitors who enjoy Hawaii's natural resources to further contribute to their protection, restoration, and care.
The legislature believes that a visitor green fee program would provide additional resources to restore, enhance, and protect in perpetuity, Hawaii's state-owned natural resources. A fee paid by visitors who enjoy Hawaii's public parks, beaches, and trails could generate necessary funding each year to enable Hawaii to leave future generations with a healthy and safe environment.
The legislature further finds that visitor green fees have been successfully implemented at other visitor destinations around the world, including the Galapagos Islands, New Zealand, and Palau. In addition, a visitor green fee program would indirectly support economic diversification and potentially create thousands of public and private jobs.
The legislature also believes that it is imperative to raise additional revenues to offset visitor impacts, to ensure we leave a positive environmental legacy for future generations. An environmental visitor fee provides a reasonable and appropriate way to generate these needed revenues.
SECTION 2. Chapter 171, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by adding a new part to be appropriately designated and to read as follows:
"Part . VISITOR GREEN FEE PROGRAM
§171-A Definitions. For purposes of this part:
"Commission" means the environmental legacy commission.
"Fund" means the visitor green fee special fund established pursuant to section 171-G.
"License" means a license issued pursuant to this part.
"Nonprofit organization" means a private, nonprofit organization, with nonprofit status acknowledged by the United State Internal Revenue Service, that qualifies under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, as amended, and has among its charitable purposes the preservation, restoration, management, or interpretation of natural or cultural resources for scientific, historic, educational, recreational, scenic, wildlife, or open-space purposes, the protection of the natural environment or biological resources, or both, the preservation or enhancement of wildlife, or both, and the protection or interpretation, or both, of Native Hawaiian cultural resources.
"Visitor" means a person in Hawaii who is not a resident of Hawaii.
"Program" means the visitor green fee program.
"Resident of Hawaii" means an individual who has:
(1) Filed or paid state income taxes for the previous tax year; or
(2) Established domicile in the State, as evidenced by documentation showing the individual's address, including any of the following:
(A) A valid Hawaii driver's license;
(B) A valid Hawaii state identification card;
(C) A valid school identification card; or
(D) Any other official document issued to the individual within the last thirty days by a government agency, financial institution, insurance company, or utility company in the State.
§171-B Visitor green fee program; license; signs. (a) There is established within the department the
visitor green fee program. The purpose of
the program shall be to collect a fee from visitors and allocate that revenue to
protect and manage state-owned natural resources.
(b) Each visitor who is fifteen years of age or older who visits a state park, beach, state-owned forest, hiking trail, or other state-owned natural area on state-owned land shall first pay a visitor green fee to obtain a license pursuant to this part.
(c) The department shall place signs at state parks, beaches, state-owned forests, trail heads, other state-owned natural areas to inform visitors of the requirement to pay a visitor green fee and obtain a license pursuant to this section.
§171-C License; purchase. (a) The department shall establish convenient opportunities for visitors to pay a visitor green fee and be issued a license including through the use of:
(1) A mobile application; and
(2) An internet website.
The department may authorize retail establishments and nonprofit organizations to accept payment of a visitor green fee and issue a license.
(b) The amount of the visitor green fee shall be $ ; provided that the chairperson may increase the fee no more frequently than once every five years.
(c) Each license shall be effective for one year,
including the date of issuance.
§171-D Penalties. (a) Any applicable person who visits a state park, beach, state-owned forest, hiking trail, or other state-owned natural area on state-owned land without first paying a visitor green fee and obtaining a license in violation of section 171-B(b) shall be liable for a civil fine not to exceed $ .
(b) Any civil fine provided under this section may be imposed by the circuit court or may be imposed by the department after an opportunity for a hearing under chapter 91. Imposition of a civil fine shall not be a prerequisite to any civil fine or other injunctive relief ordered by the circuit court.
§171-E Environmental legacy commission; established; members. (a) There is established within the department of land and natural resources the environmental legacy commission. The members of the commission shall be appointed by the governor in the manner prescribed in section 26-34. The commission shall guide the department's disbursement of revenues collected pursuant to this part.
(b) The commission shall comprise the following members, who shall be appointed or invited to serve:
(1) The chairperson of the board of land and natural resources or the chairperson's designee, who shall serve as the chairperson of the commission;
(2) The director of agriculture or the director's designee;
(3) The director of the office of planning and sustainable development or the director's designee;
(4) The chief executive officer of the Hawaii tourism authority or the chief executive officer's designee;
(5) One representative of a nonprofit environmental organization having expertise on the protection, restoration, and care of terrestrial natural resources, who shall be invited by the chairperson;
(6) One representative of a nonprofit environmental organization having expertise on the protection, restoration, and care of marine and coastal natural resources, who shall be invited by the chairperson;
(7) One representative of a nonprofit environmental organization having expertise on climate change mitigation and resiliency, who shall be invited by the chairperson;
(8) Up to two representatives from the Native Hawaiian community who have expertise in the protection, restoration, care, and interpretation of Native Hawaiian cultural resources, who shall be invited by the chairperson;
(9) One representative between the age of eighteen and twenty-five years of age, inclusive, who works or has worked in the field of environmental sustainability or restoration, or both, who shall be invited by the chairperson; and
(10) One representative from the visitor sector and tourism industry, who shall be invited by the chief executive officer of the Hawaii tourism authority.
(c) A simple majority of the members shall establish a quorum.
(d) The members shall serve without compensation but shall be reimbursed for expenses, including travel expenses, necessary for the performance of their duties.
§171-F Environmental legacy commission; powers; duties.
(a) The commission shall guide and
approve the department's disbursement of visitor green fee revenues deposited into
the fund:
(1) For the purpose of restoring, enhancing, and protecting, in perpetuity, Hawaii's state-owned natural resources and its unique and vulnerable ecosystem;
(2) With transparency and accountability; and
(3) In a manner that maximizes the effectiveness of the visitor green fee program.
(b) Subject to subsection (d), the commission shall allocate moneys deposited in the fund for direct expenditure by state agencies and for grants for projects that directly restore, enhance, and protect in perpetuity state-owned natural resources and its unique and fragile ecological status, including projects for one or more of the following purposes:
(1) Protection, restoration, or enhancement of terrestrial or marine natural resources; provided that up to per cent of each grant may be allocated for resource management to ensure the long-term sustainability of the natural resources;
(2) Increase of resilience and adaptation of Hawaii's natural 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; or
(3) Removal and control of invasive species and propagation and planting of native species.
(c) In awarding grants, the commission shall prioritize projects that satisfy at least one of the following:
(1) Provide significant long-term protection, restoration, and enhancement of Hawaii's natural resources; or
(2) Increase the accessibility, safety, and continued use of Hawaii state-owned natural, and outdoor recreational resources.
(d) In each year, allocation of moneys appropriated from the fund shall be divided as follows:
(1) No more than per cent of the allocation shall be for grants to local governments, nonprofit organizations, and community-based organizations;
(2) No more than per cent of the funds pursuant to this paragraph shall be used to administer this part; and
(3) No more than per cent of the allocation may be used to establish, maintain, or enhance state management of natural resources, implementation of state regulatory programs designed to protect natural resources, and enforcement of natural resources protection laws and rules.
§171-G Visitor green fee special fund; established. (a) There is established within the state treasury the visitor green fee special fund.
(b) The following moneys shall be deposited into the fund:
(1) All revenue from visitor green fees, less any costs incurred in collecting those fees;
(2) All fines collected pursuant to section 171-D, less any costs incurred in collecting those fines;
(3) Appropriations made by the legislature; and
(4) Grants and gifts made to the fund.
§171-H Report to legislature. (a) No later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular session of 2025 and each year thereafter, the department shall submit a report to the legislature.
(b) The report shall contain information on ways, during the previous fiscal year, that the fund restored, enhanced, and protected Hawaii's state-owned natural resources, and its unique and vulnerable ecosystem, as well as the benefits that accrue or will accrue from those expenditures to the benefit of the State's natural resources.
(c) The department shall also publish the reports on its website.
§171-I Rules. The department may adopt rules pursuant to chapter 91 necessary for the purposes of this part."
SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general
revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for
fiscal year 2022-2023 for deposit into the visitor green fee special fund.
SECTION 4. There is appropriated out of the visitor green fee special fund the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2022-2023 for the establishment of the environmental legacy commission and a strategic plan with a timetable indicating how the established objectives and policies will be pursued and implemented pursuant to this Act.
The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of land and natural resources for the purpose of this Act.
SECTION 5. This Act does not affect rights and duties that matured, penalties that were incurred, and proceedings that were begun before its effective date.
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. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2022.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
DLNR; Visitor Green Fee; Environmental Legacy; Appropriation
Description:
Establishes within the Department of Land and Natural Resources a visitor green fee program to collect a fee to allow visitors to visit a state park, beach, state-owned forest, hiking trail, or other state-owned natural area. Establishes the environmental legacy commission to allocate the revenues from the visitor green to protect and manage Hawaii's natural resources. Appropriates moneys.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
