LIHUE — Hawaii’s transient accommodations and vacation rentals are drawing national attention from child safety groups.
Senate Bill 1292 aims at hosting platforms, like Airbnb, to require them to register as tax collection agents to collect the state’s General Excise Tax and the Transient Accommodation Tax. It would adjust penalties for violation of TAT requirements as well.
Stop Child Predators, a national child safety advocacy group and nonprofit that has spent the last 13 years combating the sexual exploitation of children, issued a statement regarding the Hawaii State Senate’s decision Tuesday to reconsider and pass Senate Bill 1292 to tax short-term rentals.
“This ill-advised legislation will legitimize thousands of illegal rentals in residential communities across the islands of Hawaii and incentivize more residential homes to be converted to short-term rentals by commercial investors – posing a safety risk for neighborhoods and child safety as neighbors are replaced with revolving doors of strangers,” said Stacie Rumenap, president of Stop Child Predators, in a press release.
The piece that garnered national attention is that the specific addresses of transient accommodations were to be unlisted with the Department of Taxation — that worried groups like the national non-profit Stop Child Predators.
The concern rests on home sharing with “strangers”, short-term rental properties owned by out-of-state investors, and stories of hosting platforms becoming a tool for connection in prostitution and drug trafficking.
Senate President Ron Kouchi of Kauai said Monday he hadn’t heard anything about those allegations until last week, and said he “really can’t offer comment on something of that nature,” but said regulating transient accommodation activities is a matter for the county, not the state.
He points out the issue of enforcement and the proliferation of illegal operation and activities, and says Kauai has made the most progress on the problem in the state so far.
“The use of a vacation rental for legal and conforming, or for illegal usage, is a county zoning ordinance issue, so any violations that are occurring are enforced by county planning departments,” Kouchi said.
Reps. Nadine Nakamura and Dee Morikawa said the concern and the problem is related to overall enforcement and identification of illegal vacation rentals.
Nakamura said she’s concerned the county wouldn’t have access to specific addresses to determine which vacation rentals are legal. A better route, she says, is to give the county stronger, clearer enforcement tools that go hand-in-hand with state efforts to collect taxes.
“Illegal vacation rentals have transformed residential neighborhoods throughout Kauai and reduced the housing stock for local families,” Nakamura said. “We know that there are many law-abiding, tax-paying operators of legal transient vacation rentals. We also know that there are many operators who are simply not playing by the rules and not paying their fair share of taxes.”
Morikawa cited the same problems with the bill.
“This bill only focuses on the collections, not on the county’s ability to find these illegal rentals.,” Morikawa said. “There is no doubt that the County needs help in this area, but until we can work out the details of the constitutionality of obtaining tax information, the County will need to continue doing the best they can in finding these illegal rentals.”
Rep. Jimmy Tokioka said Monday he’s never heard of Stop Child Predators, either.
But, he is familiar with the bill and said the state needs every cent of the $46 million it would generate.
“I think there needs to be provisions, though, that allow for the counties to get information for units that are being rented in each county,” Tokioka said.
Rumenap called for Gov. David Ige to take a stand.
“Either he stands up for parents, children and impacted neighborhoods by vetoing this legislation or he signs it, setting off a permanent downward spiral of impacts to the community fabric and safety of neighborhoods across every Hawaiian island,” she said.
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Jessica Else, environment reporter, can be reached at 245-0452 or at jelse@thegardenisland.com
