Hours after Sen. Donna Mercado Kim blasted leadership’s handling of the measure, two state senate committees Wednesday deferred action on a heavily re-written bill that would establish a comprehensive sports and entertainment authority.

A redrafted version of House Bill 1847 is scheduled to be posted online today and a vote has been postponed until it is heard in committee meetings Friday and Monday.

“This bill has changed drastically,” Kim (D, Kapalama-‘Alewa) told members of the senate Committees on Economic Development, Environment and Technology and Tourism and International Affairs in the afternoon.

In its newest form, the bill would still provide for the hiring of a statewide sports coordinator and an assistant to develop and implement a strategy for keeping and attracting sports and entertainment events.

But they would not have jurisdiction over Aloha Stadium and the Kapolei Recreational Sports Complex, would not be funded by a $10 million appropriation from the transient and accommodations tax revenues that help fund the Hawaii Tourism Authority and the proposed authority would lose much of the autonomy that the original bill had sought.

Funding would be at about $500,000-$750,000 from general funds, would have an 11-member advisory panel largely made up of city, county and state officials and would be overseen by the Department of Business Economic Development and Tourism.

In a morning floor session, Kim charged that procedure was circumvented by assigning the bill outside of previous committee lines, including the committee on Government Operations, which she chairs. That committee deferred Senate Bill 2216, which was similar to the house bill.

Kim said she was concerned about “Repealing the Stadium Authority and replacing it with a sports authority attached to DBED instead of the (Department of Accounting and General Services),” which has overseen the stadium.

“This is a major change in governmental operations with impact far reaching,” Kim said.

She said, “it makes one wonder why such covert (measures) and … who is pulling the strings and what questions they are afraid to answer?”

Meanwhile House Bill 2229, which Sen. Glenn Wakai (D, Kalihi-Salt Lake) described as, “Our fallback plan if the sports authority doesn’t pass,” won unanimous approval.

It would establish a sports task force within DBED. The DBED director would chair an 11-member panel that would meet once per quarter and make recommendations to the legislature.

As to rewriting of House Bill 1847, Wakai, who chairs the EET committee, said “I just think the stadium authority — and I’ve been working with them for the past five years on master planning that area — has built up some momentum that might be lost by a sports authority that might have some very different views.”

In regard to the HTA, Wakai said, “I was pleasantly surprised to see that they are actually going to contract out sports marketing, which, to me, means somebody coming up with a comprehensive plan and starting to chase new business for us. So, if they are going to do that, then that aspect of what was initially put forth to us is no longer necessary.”

Sophie Cocke contributed to this story.