STAND. COM. REP. NO.  706

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2013

 

RE:   H.B. No. 208

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 208, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LOBBYISTS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to allow the imposition of penalties on lobbyists for the failure to file a required statement or report or for negligently filing a statement or report containing a material omission or false statement.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, the League of Women Voters-Hawaii, and a concerned individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that the current law requires a lobbyist to act wilfully in order to be subject to penalty, and thus conceivably allows a lobbyist to claim ignorance of the requirement to file a statement or report of the lobbyist's activities and avoid any penalties.  Your Committee finds that deleting the requirement that a lobbyist act wilfully in order to be subject to penalty allows for more transparency in government.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 208, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

 

 

 

 

____________________________

SYLVIA LUKE, Chair