STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2015

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2131

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Transportation and Energy, to which was referred S.B. No. 2131 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENERGY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to restore:

 

     (1)  The definition of "power-generating facility" in section 243-1, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

 

     (2)  The fuel tax on naphtha, as used in a power-generating facility, at a rate of two cents per gallon.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Taxation and Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Taxation and Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that the fuel tax on naphtha was enacted in 2007 but was repealed on December 31, 2015, by Act 188, Session Laws of Hawaii 2012.  Naphtha is a source of alternative fuel that should be taxed to enhance state revenues.  This measure will restore the tax retroactive to January 1, 2016.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Transportation and Energy that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2131, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2131, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Transportation and Energy,

 

 

 

________________________________

LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair