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The Hawaii Tourism Authority will no longer be an independent agency, should Senate Bill 1571 become law: The bill removes executive authority from the HTA board, making it an advisory body, with purse strings controlled by the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism. The full House and Senate will vote it up or down this week.
SB 1571 has HTA’s president and CEO to be selected by the board, subject to Senate approval, and reporting to the governor. The House speaker and Senate president would each appoint one board member; one board member would represent a “tourism-impacted” entity. Meanwhile, all HTA jobs would remain outside civil service.