The proposed House Bill 862 (HB 862) looks to cut funding from the Hawaii Tourism Authority (HTA), among other programs, and has already passed two Senate committees last week.
"I'm in a state of shock today because our program is really important. We care about our visitors. You take our program away from someone who has just lost their husband or wife in a drowning or an airplane crash – they're on their own. Is this really the message we will send out to our visitors, that we don't care about them?" Jessica Lani Rich, president of Visitor Aloha Society, said in a video from KHON.
HB 862 was first introduced to "reconfigure administrative duties of aerospace agencies," but then was amended to include changes for the funding of HTA. In addition to cutting the funding for HTA, the bill, if passed, would also limit the organization's responsibilities, focus more on destination marketing and eliminate its role in developing policies that affects tourism.
Opposition to the bill has gained a lot of momentum from Native Hawaiian cultural groups, especially those groups where many of them receive funding from the HTA.
Recently, both Senate Ways and Means committee and the Commerce and Consumer Protection committee approved the bill during a joint meeting.