Suzanne Case (DLNR) and Ed Underwood mislead legislators with request for rules changes that are currently undergoing the scrutiny of the courts
SB795 is a thinly veiled pretense to hand public recreational harbors over to big-money private interests
SB795 again threatens the public recreational harbor community, statewide. This is a bill that would give poorly qualified harbor management the legal means to price average income earners out of the public harbor system. ". . . the true goal of this legislation is to price the average public out of their own harbor system in order to make our publicly-owned recreational harbors more attractive to big-stakes private bidders waiting to seize harbor properties from the public ― a mean-spirited, immoral and ethically challenged endgame at best."
This is our testimony to the Water and Land committee who will be conducting a hearing on this bill on Thursday, March 18, 2021 at 8:30am. You can watch the meeting live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6nbyYi-tCs
PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Katherine Lindell
Honolulu, Hawaii
Tuesday, March 16, 2020, 8:30 A.M.
This testimony has been published on the Hawaii Ocean News website (HawaiiOceanNews.com)
(This senate bill is scheduled to be heard on Thursday, 03-18-21, 8:30AM, in House conference room 430, via video conference)
This testimony is intended for the following legislators: David A. Tarnas, Patrick Pihana Branco, Sonny Ganaden, Bertrand Kobayashi, Dee Morikawa, Takashi Ohno, and Bob McDermott.
In consideration of
Senate Bill 795 SD2, RELATING TO PUBLIC BOAT HARBOR FEES
WE STRONGLY OPPOSE SB795, WITHOUT RESERVATION, for the following reasons:
1) SB795’s HRS 200-10 is currently being challenged in Hawaii’s First Circuit Court (1CCV-20-0000016). Passing SB795 while the legality of its central premise is pending a court hearing, presumes upon the court’s judgment and weakens Hawaii’s system of checks and balances.
2) SB795 will not achieve increased revenues for the State; SB795 will cost the Special Boating Fund and Hawaii Taxpayers in lost revenues and in the huge related expenses associated with illegal liveaboards, boat squatting and homelessness:
Should SB795 become law, many boating families holding current Principle Habitation Permits issued by the State will be left with no other choice but to drop their permit (with it's huge fees) and continue to live on board their vessels illegally. This will create an instant revenue shortfall and a huge new, complicated, and expensive enforcement problem for the State.
- Harbor rates were just increased in 2019. Some boaters experienced a sudden more-than-doubling of harbor monthly fees. As a result, boats left the harbor system ― or were abandoned leaving the State holding the bill for lost slip revenues, salvage and disposal. In this exact same way, SB795 promises to create even more losses for the State. SB795 will be instrumental in triggering significant financial loss for the State at a time when we can least afford it..
- Forcing boater families to drop their Principle Habitation Permit is, of course, the true goal of this legislation: to evict boater families with Principle Habitation Permits so as to make our publicly-owned recreational harbors more attractive to big-stakes private bidders waiting to seize harbor properties from the public ― a mean-spirited, immoral and ethically challenged endgame at best.
- In a recent survey conducted by Hawaii Ocean News, 41% of those we surveyed in the harbor system who held Principal Habitation permits said that they do not have the means to shoulder a sudden, near doubling of their rent. Most of this 41% (90%) said that they were concerned about becoming homeless.
3) SB795 will create more homelessness.
According to Lt. Gov. Josh Green:
- Hawaii is currently facing one of the worst homeless epidemics in the country with the highest rate of homelessness per capita in the nation.
- The average public cost for an unsheltered homeless person is $2,897 per month.