Senate considers raising vehicle-registration fee
By Lynda Arakawa
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The Senate is considering increasing the motor vehicle registration fee by an extra $5 to $10 to help pay for additional emergency medical services.
The Senate Ways and Means Committee will hear a proposed Senate draft of House Bill 1182 tomorrow morning.
Senate Ways and Means Vice Chairman Russell Kokubun, D-2nd (S. Hilo, Puna, Ka'u) said he and Senate leaders plan to amend the draft to impose the increase in the fee for the hundreds of thousands of cars that must be registered each year. The money would go to the emergency medical services special fund.
He said the committee will probably amend the draft tomorrow.
He said raising the fee by $10 would generate about $9 million more for the state, which would go to the state Department of Health to provide additional emergency medical services, including aeromedical services.
"Basically we had so many requests for emergency medical services this year," Kokubun said. "And looking at it from the perspective of what the needs will be both now and in the future, with our population growing and everything, we need to provide some sort of additional funding vehicle to provide emergency medical services.
"The nexus really between motor vehicles and the emergency services is clearly there with respect to the severe car accidents requiring that kind of service from the program."
The proposal also includes a provision requiring the counties to put up their own money to receive state money for various emergency medical services.
"At this point we're still talking conceptually, but we'll be hammering out the specific details as the bill moves along," Kokubun said.
Senate Minority Leader Fred Hemmings, R-25th (Kailua, Waimanalo, Hawai'i Kai), said he supports emergency medical initiatives but that it shouldn't be paid for out of new taxes.
"It is absolutely ludicrous that programs that should be paid for out of existing tax dollars are now having to be subsidized further by a fee increase," Hemmings said. "The city and county has, as the state has, had in the past a long and sad history of misappropriated monies. Rather than correcting the problem, coming in and asking for a simple fee increase is a tremendous disservice to the taxpayers. We have and we will continue to oppose tax and fee increases."
Reach Lynda Arakawa at larakawa@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070.
