Tourism measure seeks better parks
By Katherine Nichols
Advertiser Staff Writer
A tourism-related bill in the Senate will be amended to earmark $2 million from hotel-room tax collections to improve state parks, said Sen. Donna Mercado Kim, chairwoman of the Tourism and Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.
The amendment would also require both the Hawai'i Tourism Authority and the Department of Land and Natural Resources to produce a cohesive plan for park improvements.
"We're hoping for some kind of coordination," Kim said yesterday at a Senate hearing on the bill.
In addition, at least $1 million from the Hawai'i Tourism Authority's $61 million annual marketing fund, which comes from hotel-room tax collections, would be dedicated to the advocacy of state parks, said Kim. This would include conducting studies to find out what needs to be improved.
In the hearing yesterday, tourism authority executive director Rick Humphreys said his agency opposes the move. Although he agreed with the importance of maintaining state parks and acknowledged their widespread use by visitors, Humphreys said the authority's board of directors opposed diverting too much money from the transient accommodations tax to the state parks fund.
Kim said the role of advocacy for state parks is part of the authority's mandate.
The senator also took the land department to task for not having a master plan to help the Legislature determine where the money will go. She said details must be presented if the department is to receive money to supplement an estimated $7 million state park budget, with $600,000-$700,000 allocated for maintenance of hiking trails.
Another tourism-related bill before the Senate calls for the policy-making board of directors to be increased from 10 to 12 voting members appointed by the governor.
The bill also required legislative notice for the tourism authority's contracts over $25,000, as well as a management and financial audit at least once every five years of all contracts or agreements valued over $10 million.
