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Legislators continued their campaign yesterday to pressure the Hawaii Tourism Authority for greater accountability.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee approved a bill that would audit the authority and kill it in two years. An earlier version of the bill was passed last week by the Senate’s tourism committee. The full Senate must approve the bill by March 8 if it is to survive.
The Legislature is unlikely to scuttle the 2 1/2-year-old authority, but lawmakers are clearly sending a message that they want the board to report its activities and spending in what they feel will be greater detail.
"It is a government entity, it is taxpayers’ money, and reporting and accountability and all of those things need to be followed," Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, D-15th (Moanalua, ‘Aiea, Pearlridge, Kalihi Valley), said at yesterday’s hearing.
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