Good points Crazyknits.....

And all concerned owners (local or not, PM or not) shoould consider joining and supporting the Rental By Owner Awareness Association.

http://www.rboaa.org

They are the first group that has succesfuly organized to protect the rights and interests of all TVR property owners.

For those that don't already know RBOAA have retained an attorney in Hawaii (DAMON KEY LEONG KUPCHAK HASTERT) and have drafted a 6 page Memorandum re: Legal Challenges to Hawaii HB No. 2078 and SB No. 2947

We need this type of information in the hands of the Attorney General and Governors office ASAP.

Please cosnider joining RBOAA as soon as you can....It will be much less expensive to fight this now than after it has been signed into law.

We still have the opportunity to influence the outcome of this. My personal attempt will be to talk to as many legislators as possible pointing out that these bills will harm many small businesses and possibly put many of them out of business and that leads to less tax revenue in a tax strapped state. I want to focus on the finance committee. If the House and Senate do not agree, no compromise bill will emerge and the bill will die. Long term, the issue comes up again so we need to stress how these bills as currently drafted destroy small business and get the small business proponents to help us. We need to show how we are helping the economy in Hawaii, how we are providing a great service the tourist trade. We need to convince the legislators we are providing a valuable service to the state and they need to protect us, not harm us. The telephone is a great communication vehicle for non- resident owners. E-mail gets dumped and you never know if your message was ever received. As each of us visits Hawaii, schedule a day to talk to the legislators. Lobby By Owner

Crazyknits

You do know that this session of the legislature ends on May 5th, don't you?  I have no plans to visit Maui for the next 6 months.  By then it will be too late.  It may be too late in a month....

That certainly sounds encouraging but is totally unexpected.

Which bill and which committee?

What would cause it to die?

Several bloggers appear to be confused about how bills pass through the Hawaii State Legislature.

For those who seek enlightenment, see a clear explanation on the usual route of passage on the link to the Hawaii Legislators Handbook:

http://hawaii.gov/lrb/hndbook/hbk6.html

Another blogger did not appear to understand what will happen after the RBOAA (Rental By Owner Awareness Association. http://www.rboaa.org)

takes legal action and defeats the bill in court. The bill is then overturned by the court. This ends the process. The court does not turn around and try to rewrite or amend the bill.

Correct, the AG is not the next person to review the bill.  I believe at this point, because both houses have seen the bill, even if the governor did nothing and the legislature adjourned, the bill would become law. The number of days depends on how many days before the end of the legislature it is "presented" to the governor. So the governor has to veto the bill at this point.

The AG has a whole division to review legislative laws, but when they do this, I don't know.

From the Hawaii AG site:

The Legislative Division provides legal services on matters pertaining to legislation and to proposed administrative rules.  The division coordinates the preparation and review of all legislative bills proposed by the executive branch agencies and coordinates the review, monitoring, and evaluation of all legislative bills during and after each session of the Legislature.  In addition, the division coordinates, monitors, and reviews the preparation of administrative rules of the Department of the Attorney General.  This division also performs the final review of the formal opinions issued by the Attorney General and performs the initial review of complaints involving the Sunshine Law.

Check out this newsletter from "Maui's Next Genreation of Realtors" for a gross misrepresentation of the Canadian perspective on HB2078.  Go to: http://mauihomeandcondo.com/update-on-hb-2078-sd-2/2012/04/

The offensive wording:

"Speaking of education, one of the most interesting, perhaps amusing parts of this discussion is the complaint raised by Canadian owners of Hawaii vacation rentals that the requirement that they pay TAT or have an on-island representative somehow is a violation of the North American Fair Trade Agreement (NAFTA)."

Canadians and fellow off-islanders, this kind of distortion of testimony deserves a strong response and rebuke.