State tax measure may
have technical difficultiesThe attorney general is looking
at possible legislative mishandling
Attorney General Mark Bennett's office apparently will decide whether an important bill recorded as passed by the 2003 Legislature will suffer a technical knockout.
If it does, it could make filing state income tax returns more complicated for Hawaii taxpayers next year.
Senate Bill 1394 is the annual measure that keeps Hawaii's tax code in conformity with most parts of the federal tax code, making it simpler for Hawaii taxpayers to file their income tax returns.
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Important parts of this year's bill would put Hawaii's code in line with the federal code on amounts and timing of tax-deferred contributions to retirement plans, according to Lowell Kalapa, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.
On Tuesday, Ken Takayama, acting director of the Legislative Reference Bureau, sent a general distribution letter saying SB1394 "did not pass second reading in the Senate and therefore should not be listed in the bills passed by the Hawaii State Legislature, Regular Session of 2003 list."
Hawaii's Constitution requires that bills sent to the governor for consideration must have passed three readings in both the House and Senate.
The LRB's official tracking of SB1394 shows that on Feb. 19 it went to the Senate floor, where a motion was approved to return it to the Ways and Means Committee for further consideration. Records do not show whether the Senate passed it on second reading.
The tracking shows it returned on Feb. 28 to the Senate floor, where it was approved on third reading March 4 and sent to the House.
Senate Clerk Paul Kawaguchi said House and Senate leaders and the Governor's Office have been informed of the "technical problem," and it will be up to the attorney general's office to determine if it is fatal.
Kawaguchi said while the official tracking of the bill shows no passage on second reading in the Senate, the Senate's Order of Business, the written agenda, for Feb. 19 lists the bill as coming from the Ways and Means Committee, which "recommends passage on second reading and recommittal" to the committee.
What Senate members thought they were voting on based on the written agenda probably is more important than what clerks recorded about the progress of the bill, Kawaguchi said.
Deputy Attorney General Maurice Kato, who heads the Legislative Division in the attorney general's office, said he is aware of the issue and is awaiting documentation from the Senate clerk on how the bill was handled, including transcriptions of the motions made.
"We're certainly not going to try to make any determinations before we find out what happened," Kato said.
