Committee forwards Bill 47 to council after hours of testimony on transient vacation rental registration

Councilmember Kimbell introduced Bill 47 on April 22, 2025, proposing a county-managed registration system for most transient vacation rentals (TVRs), including hosted and unhosted listings. The bill would require property-level registration, annual renewals (proposed $100 for hosted and $250 for unhosted), and monthly platform reporting by hosting companies to help the county identify listings and enforce transient accommodations tax (TAT) and general excise tax (GET) compliance. The finance department would administer registrations; the planning department would review land-use compliance and handle appeals.

The committee heard extensive public testimony from operators, residents and industry representatives. Supporters, including Stephanie Donahoe of the Kohala Coast Resort Association, said registration would level the tax and enforcement playing field and help the county identify listings that are not paying TAT or GET. Multiple residents and small operators — Joshua Michalek, Joy Dillon, John Casey, William Burns and others — urged delay until the county’s commissioned economic impact study is released, argued the $10,000 enforcement penalty is excessive, and warned that linking registration to permitting could imperil families relying on rental income. Several speakers described lengthy permitting timelines and said many properties contain unpermitted improvements; presenters cited a mayoral working-group estimate that about 40% of island properties have significant unpermitted improvements, which testifiers said could sweep thousands of households into enforcement if enforcement is punitive.

Planning Director Jeff Darrow told the committee the county’s current enforcement is complaint-driven and focused on unhosted short-term vacation rentals, and explained parking and land-use standards used to identify violations. Deputy Finance Director Malia Kekai said the county’s TAT/internal-controls division would manage registrations and expected staffing to be sufficient once a vacancy is filled.

Council members debated trade-offs between enforcement, equity and housing impacts. Several members stressed that Bill 47 does not itself change zoning or real-property tax code (those land-use rules remain in chapter 25), but would expand registration to hosted rentals so the county can compare registries with platform data and identify potentially illegal unhosted operations. Makers emphasized the registration step is intended to inform later, data-driven policy decisions; they said land-use changes would come only after the economic study and any required planning-commission review.

After questions and discussion, Councilmember Kimbell moved and Councilmember Kerkowitz seconded a motion to forward Bill 47 to the full council with a favorable recommendation. The committee approved the motion on a roll call vote: six ayes, one no (Councilmember Onishi), two absences. The committee recorded no final land-use changes in this vote; the referral establishes the registration framework for further review by the full council and potential subsequent amendments.

What happens next: Bill 47 will be considered by the full Hawaii County Council; the committee and several testifiers asked the council to consider the pending economic impact study and to clarify fee, penalty and implementation details before final passage.