Our boaters have been priced out of public harbors – Harbor revenues tank but SB3130 may help revitalize lost revenues and the public’s interest in their harbors

By Katherine LindellFebruary 7, 2022State Small Boat Harbor System

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PUBLIC TESTIMONY

Katherine Lindell
(Katherine@HawaiiOceanNews.com)

Honolulu, Hawaii

Monday, February 7, 2022, 8:30 A.M.

This testimony has been published on the Hawaii Ocean News website (HawaiiOceanNews.com)

(This bill, SB3130, is scheduled to be heard by WAM on Monday, 02-07-22, 1:00 PM

This testimony is intended for the following legislators: Gilbert Keith-Agaran, Vice-Chair Donovan Dela Cruz, Chair, Lorraine Inouye, Michelle Kidani, Sharon Moriwaki, Maile Shimabukuro, Brian Taniguchi, Glenn Wakai, Dru Kanuha, and Kurt Fevella

In consideration of

Senate Bill 3130, RELATING TO RELATING TO TRANSFERABILITY OF MOORING PERMITS

WE SUPPORT SB3130, WITHOUT RESERVATION, for the following reasons:

1) SB795, 2021, (now Act 42) released DoBOR from oversight regarding the setting of statewide harbor fees. Once passed, DoBOR’s administrator, Ed Underwood, immediately took the opportunity to weaponize Act 42, using it as a rationale in an end-run, back-door scheme to evict long-time Principal Habitation permitted families from their homes by simply pricing them out of our harbors. Mr. Underwood admitted to this, full face, during a town hall meeting sponsored by Senator Moriwaki.

In his zeal to price boaters out of the harbor system, Mr. Underwood completely ignored the consequences of marketplace economics. As a result, there was a mass exodus of regular tenants from, especially, the Ala Wai Small Boat Harbor. In the rush to get out from under suddenly stifling harbor fees, boaters abandoned boats, moved to much cheaper yacht club sponsored slips nearby, or put their boats up for sale. Hawaii Ocean News has secured video proof of the suddenly wide-spread boat sell-offs in the Ala Wai harbor shortly after Underwood’s fee increases took effect.

SB3130, if thoughtfully implemented, will rescue plummeting harbor revenues that resulted from poorly-thought-through pricing schemes, will renew interest among boaters to reapply for slips, and, as a result, create, once again, a vibrant and, above all, profitable public harbor system.

As such, I STRONGLY AGREE WITH and SUPPORT a thoughtfully implemented version of SB3130 that will sincerely incorporate the input from the boating public.

Katherine Lindell
Katherine@HawaiiOceanNews.com

Our boaters have been priced out of public harbors – Harbor revenues tank but SB3130 may help revitalize lost revenues and the public’s interest in their harbors

We are supporting this measure in good faith, hoping that it is used to enhance our public harbors for the boating public in Hawaii

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