A host of bills in the state Legislature are dead after failing to meet a deadline Friday.
Friday marked the Legislature’s “first decking” deadline, when bills are required to pass their final committees in their originating chambers before being submitted for third reading and crossover to the other chamber this week.
Therefore, all bills that failed to pass their final committees by Friday can no longer progress in this legislative session.
The dead bills include all but one of the minimum-wage-related measures introduced this year.
Senate Bill 676, which would increase the minimum wage to $12 an hour beginning in July 2022, has passed its committees in the Senate and remains active.
All other minimum wage bills, including proposals that would increase the minimum wage up to $17 an hour, are dead.
Other defunct bills include:
• All measures involving Maunakea. This includes House Bill 544, which would issue funds for a University of Hawaii capital improvement project on Maunakea summit; HB 703 and SB 1299, which would prohibit all new construction on the mountain; and HB 693, which would establish “legal personhood” for the mountain.
• House Bill 344, which would have eliminated the state’s contested case process for land-related issues, was deferred in early February.
• House Bill 771, which would have established an additional surcharge on the state’s liquor tax for three years, has failed to progress since mid-February and is dead. Similarly, a pair of bills that would have introduced a tax on sugary beverages also failed to make any substantial progress since January.
• Senate Bill 1009, which would have expanded the state’s definition of “personal information,” prohibited the sale of geolocation and internet browser information without consent, and made illegal the creation and distribution of pornography altered to bear the appearance of another person without that person’s consent, with the intent to harm that person in any way, was deferred in mid-February. A different bill, Senate Bill 309, only targets the pornography aspect of SB 1009 and is still active.
• All but four of the 20 fireworks-related bills introduced this year are dead. The survivors include HB 508, which would increase the fines related to illegal fireworks use; HB 1245, which would amend the state’s framework for processing fireworks violations; HB 1246, which would consider certain fireworks violations as air and noise pollution offenses; and Senate Bill 513, which would increase fireworks permit fees and violation fines. All other fireworks bills, including one that would require the Department of Transportation to inspect commercial shipments for fireworks using canine units, as well as several that would have instead reduced regulations surrounding fireworks, are no more.
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.