New laws go into effect today
By Gordon Y.K. Pang and Treena Shapiro
Advertiser Capitol Bureau
The price of registering a passenger vehicle goes up $16 to $34 dollars today under a motor-vehicle weight-tax increase, the most wide-ranging of a dozen city and state laws that take effect today.
The increases proposed by Mayor Jeremy Harris and approved by the City Council on Christmas Eve will be reflected on February bills, which will be put in the mail early this month. The tax for about 545,000 passenger vehicles will rise from 1.25 cents to 2 cents a pound, while commercial vehicles will see an increase from 2 cents to 2.5 cents a pound.
The 60 percent hike for passenger vehicles will mean an increase of about $18.97 for Toyota Corolla sedan owners, $26.62 for those who own Toyota Tacoma pickup trucks and $27.30 more for Toyota Highlander sport-utility vehicles.
New revenues generated by the increase will go into the city's bus fund. That will free up money in the city's operating budget to be used to pay the first two years of salary increases to Honolulu police officers under their arbitrated four-year contract.
The tax increase is the only significant city legislation to go into effect today.
At the state level, 11 laws go into effect today, including one making it easier for police to measure the blood alcohol content of drivers involved in accidents if they are not injured or if they refuse medical treatment.
Act 72 essentially allows police to conduct breath, blood or urine tests.
While medical facilities treating an injured driver have had the right to conduct a blood or urine test if the accident involved death or injury and when requested by police, a loophole allowed uninjured, impaired drivers to elude conviction for driving under the influence of an intoxicant by refusing to submit to a breath, blood or urine test.
Other state laws going into effect today:
• Act 54, watercraft: Requires vessels more than 1 mile offshore to be equipped with an Emergency Position Indicating Radio. Exempted are canoes, thrill craft, surfboards, paddleboards and also kayaks and training sailboats that are accompanied by a vessel with a radio.
• Act 60, Hawai'i's Victims Leave Act: Entitles victims of domestic violence, sexual assault and stalking to paid or unpaid employment leave for circumstances tied to the injury or offense.
• Act 71, operating vehicles while under the influence: Establishes the category of a person "habitually operating a vehicle under the influence of an intoxicant," a Class C felony, as someone convicted three or more times for offenses of operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or drugs within 10 years of the first offense.
• Act 114, informed consent: Updates the provisions relating to a healthcare provider's duty to inform patients regarding medical treatment. For instance, it is now mandatory for a healthcare provider to disclose specific information to a patient, rather than relying on general standards of medical practice, before obtaining consent to a medical, surgical, diagnostic or therapeutic treatment or procedure. Additionally, recognized risks associated with a treatment or procedure must be disclosed.
• Act 121, state Employee Retirement System benefits: Minimizes the administrative processing of refunds for employees excluded from Social Security.
• Act 126, motor-vehicle franchises: Restores licensing of motor-vehicle manufacturers and motor-vehicle distributors. In doing so, the law maintains protections for locally owned motor-vehicle franchises, thereby protecting the investments of franchised dealers and, by extension, customers.
• Act 134, Employee Retirement System: Requires the ERS to pay interest on the retroactive amount for retirees whose pensions are not finalized within six calendar months of retirement. Also requires the ERS to assess a late fee against an employing agency for each month of delay in reporting information necessary to finalize a retiree's pension.
• Act 149, international matchmaking organizations: Allows a person living abroad who is using a for-profit matchmaking service to access criminal conviction and marital history information about a prospective spouse living in Hawai'i.
• Act 182, Employee Retirement System: Requires that a spouse or reciprocal beneficiary be given written notice when an ERS member selects a retirement benefit plan option.
• Act 192, missing children: Repeals the Hawai'i missing children clearinghouse trust fund and transfers the balance in the account to the newly created Friends of the Missing Child Center, a private nonprofit formed for the same purpose.
Reach Gordon Y.K. Pang at gpang@honoluluadvertiser.com or at 525-8070 and Treena Shapiro at tshapiro@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.
