Seeking a portion of the fines from uncontested traffic infractions and stronger requirements for products branded as having been made or produced in Hawaii are among the four counties’ priorities for the state Legislature this session.
Both will be in the package of six proposals presented to the Legislature this year by the Hawaii State Association of Counties.
The Honolulu City Council approved Wednesday a list of 18 proposals it would like to see adopted by the Legislature.
Of those, six also have been adopted by Hawaii, Kauai and Maui counties. Only proposals being sought by all four counties are included in the HSAC package to the Legislature.
"I’d rather see a small package with more meaningful legislation than a wish list because … in past histories, in terms of what HSAC has proposed since I’ve been on the Council, we haven’t gotten anything passed," Honolulu City Council Chairman Ernie Martin said. "I’d rather go with maybe two or three meaningful legislative issues and work toward those passing rather than send a wish list of 18 that probably are not going to get past first reading."
One omission from the package adopted by the Honolulu City Council was a proposal to mandate labeling of food products that contain genetically modified organisms, or GMOs. The legislation was sought by the neighbor island counties, but was not included in Honolulu’s package. Some Council members said they consider such labeling a federal issue.
Counties have long sought to have a portion of the fines from uncontested traffic infractions be turned over because they issue tickets for violations.
"That particular bill is critical to the county," Martin said. "It’s the county that enforces the traffic violations, but we don’t get any return revenue for those fines and penalties that result as an occurrence of our actions on that."
The Hawaii product labeling proposal aims to prevent labeling or branding of items with as little as 10 percent of a local product, such as coffee, tea or macadamia nuts, as Hawaiian or Hawaii-made.
Such labeling "degrades our Hawaiian products and makes a mockery of the regional quality of our products," the City Council says in its justification sheet for the measure.
Other proposals expected to be in the HSAC package include measures urging the Legislature to preserve the counties’ share of the hotel room tax and to support the easing of visa restrictions at the federal level for visitors from China.
The package also includes measures that would provide counties with representation on the Hawaii Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund and Employees’ Retirement System Trust Fund Board.
