HB 1162 Summary

• Establishes a visitor impact fee program requiring visitors age 15 and older to purchase a $50 annual license to access state-owned parks, beaches, forests, hiking trails, and natural areas.

• Creates the visitor impact fee special fund administered by the Board of Land and Natural Resources to collect fees and fines, with revenues used for protecting, restoring, and managing Hawaii's natural and cultural resources impacted by visitor use.

• Allows the board to increase the license fee by rule no more than once every five years if current fees are insufficient to offset visitor impacts to natural resources.

• Permits the board to allocate fund revenues directly to state agencies for environmental projects, provide grants to counties and nonprofit organizations (capped at 50% of annual revenue), and fund program administration and enforcement.

• Appropriates $3,000,000 from general revenues and $1,000,000 from the visitor impact fee fund for fiscal year 2023-2024 to establish four full-time positions and develop a strategic implementation plan; penalties for operating without a license begin no more than five years after program establishment.