Ige plans to veto social media, Airbnb bills
JAMM AQUINO / JAQUINO@STARADVERTISER.COM
Gov. David Ige gestures while speaking about bills he intends to veto during a news conference on Monday, June 27, 2016 at the State Capitol in Honolulu. The bills include HB1370, relating to divorce, HB1739, relating to employment, HB1747, relating to motor vehicles, HB 1850, relating to taxation, HB2016 relating to public employees, HB 2277, relating to the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission, SB2077, relating to separation benefits, SB2542, relating to repair and maintenance, and SB3102, relating to the Dept. of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.
Gov. David Ige said he plans to veto nine bills.
Today was the constitutional deadline for Ige to give lawmakers notice of the bills he plans to veto.
Among the nine is a bill that would prohibit employers from accessing or obtaining employees’ social media accounts and passwords.
Ige says it isn’t clear if the practice is occurring at levels that require state intervention. He also says the bill didn’t give the labor department funding for enforcement.
He’s also vetoing a bill that would allow companies like Airbnb to collect and remit taxes on behalf of hosts and visitors.
He says vacation rentals fall under the city’s jurisdiction. And Ige says for the bill to work as intended, counties must more actively enforce their own laws on vacation rentals before they claim additional tax revenues.
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21 responses to “Ige plans to veto social media, Airbnb bills”
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”And Ige says for the bill to work as intended, counties must more actively enforce their own laws on vacation rentals before they claim additional tax revenues”
I’m confused I thought this was intended to help the state collect the taxes (both GET and TAT) that it is not getting from some indeterminate number of Airbnb customers. Guess he has a plan to raise taxes somewhere else.
You left out the first part…”He says vacation rentals fall under the city’s jurisdiction”. The state would have to create an entity or policy to collect taxes from vacation rental owners when the city already has one and has trouble enforcing existing laws as it is. What you’re suggesting is the definition of double-work.
Whats wrong with double work? We get to have another department, hirs more state workers and collect more money from residents. Its the Hawaii government way!
Yes, Ige employers’ access employees social media accounts and passwords on a routine basis. This is particularly true for prospective employees. There are actually companies that will data mine for prospective employees. So, it is a major problem and impacts employees and prospective employees privacy. Where have you been???
I know, right?! This is basic “legal” civil rights violations nearly every day and employers even do it to current employees without their knowledge. Did you ever check your email or Facebook at work? Did you ever access any privately controlled social media or other accounts? Then that means your employer has complete access to what you think is private and they don’t even have to tell you about it or even ask your permission. This bill would have made violations of privacy like that illegal. I guess Ige is anti-worker and in favor of creepy bosses stalking their employees private messaging and pictures – that is pretty strange. This bill is law in more than half the other states in the country.
If you post something on Facebook, isn’t it out there for the public to view?
The stupid never learn, anything posted on social media is public and the social media sites own the rights to sell anything you post to anyone. They even outright tell you so when you sign up that your info will be shared and sold and/or shared to anyone at their discretion.
Incorrect. There are different settings. Are your emails public genius? No, they are private. Are your Facebook or instant messages public, no they are private. Are other peer-to-peer messaging apps public? No they are private.
Yikes..scary state. Employees should have no right to stalk or access private social media accounts unrelated to employment. But then Hawaii has always enjoyed a reputation for fear and coercion. Goes back hundreds of years.
Just leave. Please.
Ige’s turning out to be a pretty cool governor.
Ige could have shown that he wants to work with the city to allow the AirBnB bill to pass. These are state taxes after all.
He already partnered with you city guys on the homeless problem and regrets every minute of it.
The airbnb bill hides individual businesses so that enforcement may be impossible. Too many are not paying TAT and GET for their BNBs. These taxes go to upkeep for parks, police, fire, roads, water, sewers, and other public facilities we all use. It is called “user-pays”. Why should some greedy and sneaky bnb operators/owners get away with being tax scofflaws.
Ah, that’s fine. Guess I won’t be paying the state nearly 14% in taxable revenue since it’s currently a PITA to collect and pay for my AirBnB rentals.
Thanks Ige!
Just because a bill is on the list doesn’t mean that he WILL veto it. But if it’s not in the list, he can’t. Some of these may end up getting signed or allowed to become law without his signature.
I’m just surprised there’s so few bills on the list. And that he doesn’t already know whether he’s going to sign the sweetheart deal for the Maui hospital employees. Been going on 8 weeks since legislative session pau. What will happen in the next 10 days to help him decide?
If I was a visitor I would hate to have to lodge in a hotel, I would much rather want to lodge in private quarters rented out by residents. All homeowners should be allowed to rent out their homes or part of them when they are vacationing off island.
Good decision, Governor. That was a bad bill.
M
He’ll put law abiding gun owners on an FBI watch list without blinking an eye (first governer to ever do this), but prospective employers cant look at social media accounts of prospective employees. Brilliant. Just brilliant.
TMJ: I think you have it backward. The article said Ige may veto a law that would make it illegal for employers to do that.
Personally, I don’t think I would give my passwords to my personal accounts and I don’t think I should be forced to.
Wow. Makes sense to me that Airbnb should collect and submit taxes. Far more efficient, I would suppose. I suspect many hosts do not pay their taxes. Probably should be a national law.