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Committee approves adding Department of Taxation to state longitudinal data-sharing system (SB1491)
Summary
The committee voted to pass SB1491 with amendments to add DOTAX and DBEDT to the state longitudinal data system; DOTAX said the bill’s anonymity and aggregation language made compliance possible.
The Senate Committee on Labor and Technology voted to pass Senate Bill 1491 with amendments on Feb. 7, adding the Department of Taxation to the list of state agencies permitted to share data through the state longitudinal data system and inserting the Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism (DBEDT) into the data group.
The bill would allow DOTAX to provide certain wage data to other state agencies through the longitudinal data system, with language preserving anonymity and aggregated reporting, and included a defective effective date of July 1, 2050 in the committee draft.
Why it matters: proponents said connecting wage and workforce data across agencies supports workforce development research and planning.
Stephen Schatz, appearing for the University of Hawaii, said the university stood on its written testimony in support. Clinton Piper of the Department of Taxation told the committee that when DOTAX first reviewed the bill there was "a little bit of hesitation," but the bill's language "preserving the anonymity and aggregated nature of the data, as well as the preservation of state and federal law," led DOTAX to conclude "we would be able to comply with it as written."
Tom Yamachika of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii said he would "stand on our written comments" and be available for questions. The committee approved moving the bill as Senate Draft 1 with technical amendments and the inclusion of DBEDT; senators Ihara and Favela were recorded as excused. The recommendation to pass with amendments was adopted.
Next steps: the bill advances to further legislative consideration in its amended form; technical edits and the defective effective date were added in committee.
