The Senate Ways and Means Committee took a very different tack. Its 10-page version basically said, Well take away the States 10 percent skim off the surcharge, but no extension; youre on your own. <\/p>\n
That draft unanimously passed the full Senate and went over to the House. <\/p>\n
House Finance Committee Chairwoman Sylvia Luke and Senate Ways and MeansChairwoman Jill Tokudaplayed key roles in the various drafts of the rail tax bill. <\/p>\n
Cory Lum\/Civil Beat <\/p>\n
There, the House Transportation Committee kept the bill alive by putting blanks in it its draft extended the tax to an unspecified date, reinstated the skim but replaced the percentage with a blank percent to recover the states costs and a blank percent that would go the DOT for state highway projects. <\/p>\n
The House Finance Committee then filled in the blanks, extending the tax for two years, and dropping the skim to 1 percent, none of which would be earmarked for the DOT. <\/p>\n
This version went to the conference committee, and then surprising things started happening. <\/p>\n
First, the Senate proposed a new draft, radically different from the version that passed the Senate, which extended the surcharge for 10years and raised the skim to 20 percent. <\/p>\n
The House came back with a draft that left the GET surcharge untouched, dropped the skim to 1 percent and raised the hotel room tax from 9.25 percent to a hefty 12 percent. <\/p>\n
The latter proposal, though innovative, caught the hotel industry unaware, prompting vigorous objections. Then-Senate money chair Tokuda agreed to that version with tweaks a few hours later, thereby making the final decking deadline. <\/p>\n
After frantic meetings through the weekend, the money chairs, apparently with some members of the hotel industry, reached a compromise involving a shorter GET extension and a lower TAT hike. <\/p>\n
Amendments were introduced on the chamber floors to implement the agreement, although another version with only a GET extension and no TAT increase, which Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell supported, was circulating in the Senate. <\/p>\n
The House passed one version and jettisoned its speaker, while the Senate adopted the other version and deposed Chairwoman Tokuda. <\/p>\n
With no agreement between the chambers, neither version can be enacted. That is where we are now. <\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
See original here: The Senate Ways and Means Committee took a very different tack. Its 10-page version basically said, Well take away the States 10 percent skim off the surcharge, but no extension; youre on your own. Continue reading
\nTom Yamachika: Anatomy Of The Epic Fail On Rail - Honolulu Civil Beat<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"