Legislation

Major legislation Karl introduced and passed while in the State Senate or House of Representatives:

  • Vaping.  For years public health advocates have sought to regulate vaping devices on a level playing field with other tobacco products.  Senate Bill (SB) 975 finally accomplishes that goal by taxing electronic smoking devices and e-liquids at the same rate as other tobacco products, among other things.  The tax provision will reduce youth vaping because younger nicotine users are more sensitive to price. (2023)
  • Lobbyist Campaign Contributions.  In a banner year for ethics and campaign funding bills, SB 1493 was one of the most important passed.  It prohibits lobbyists from making campaign contributions to any candidate during a legislative session thus helping to curb the influence of special interest money in the Hawaii political system. (2023)
  • Section 8 Vouchers.  SB 206 prohibits most landlords from discriminating against a person based on the fact that they are paying for rent with a Section 8 voucher.  There are not enough Section 8 vouchers for all those who are eligible and they must be used within a certain time frame.  It is difficult to find affordable housing and very frustrating if you cannot find a unit in time.  SB 206 was passed in conjunction with House Bill (HB) 1752 which offers incentives to landlords to accept Section 8 vouchers. (2022)
  • “Red Flag” Law.  SB 1466 enables family members, co-workers or police to obtain court orders that would keep firearms from people who are  determined to be at high risk of violence using a gun.  One of the most difficult gun protection problems we face is that of a person buying a firearm legally and then experiencing a personal or mental health crisis that prompts him/her to commit acts of violence with it. (2019)
  • Unemployment Taxes. Reduced unemployment insurance taxes over three years, helping businesses contain costs while recovering from the recession. The original legislation in 2010 passed the Legislature without a single “no” vote. In the years these measures were passed they were the highest priority for the Hawaii Chamber of Commerce.  HB 2169 and 2096 (2010 and 2012)
  • Keeping Kukui Gardens Affordable. Provided $151 million in funding to allow the State to purchase the Kukui Gardens affordable housing complex and maintain affordable housing for years to come. The loss of 389 affordable housing units at Kukui Gardens would have been a major blow to working families in the 28th District and on the whole island. HB 667 (2007)

Other significant legislation Karl introduced and passed

  • Charging of Felonies.  In September 2022, the Hawaii Supreme Court ruled that certain felonies could only be charged by a grand jury.  This invalidated decades of prosecutors being allowed to seek charges in front of a judge.  SB 36 restored previous practice and limited the number of times prosecutors can try to charge a case without presenting new evidence.  Because of the high priority of restoring previous practice, SB 36 was the first bill signed into law by Governor Green as Act 1. (2023)
  • Drone Stalking.  SB 989 makes it a crime to fly drones onto private property to harass someone.  This bill was introduced because Karl received complaints from condo dwellers that drones were hovering outside their units and there was no law specifically saying that that was not allowed. (2023)
  • Reasonable Use of Sirens.  SB 346 authorizes first responders, police, fire and ambulances, to go on life-saving calls without sirens if it is reasonable to do so under the circumstances.  For example, late at night when the streets are deserted running without sirens is often safe.  This bill will help to ensure that concerns about liability will not override best practices. (2023)
  • Increasing Fines for PAC’s.  SB 51 increases the minimum fines for violations connected to political action committees’ organizational reports.  Private money in politics is an ongoing problem and when PAC’s try to hide the source of their money, it makes the situation worse. (2023)
  • Reasonable Application Fees.  SB 930 regulates how much landlords can charge for application fees to screen potential tenants.  Under SB 930, application fee proceeds must be used for actual expenses to vet the possible tenant.  Any amount of the fee that is not used for credit checks, et cetera, must be returned. (2023)
  • Remote Court Attendance.  SB 933 requires judges to allow petitioners for temporary restraining orders in domestic violence situations to attend court remotely.  Encounters between abuser and victim in court often result in additional trauma to victims. (2023)
  • Board of Registration Membership.  SB 9 requires that Board of Registration members be registered voters in the county in which they serve for the duration of their tenure.  Boards of Registration rule on disputes about voter registration. (2023)
  • Validity of Votes.  SB 19 confirms that if a person is eligible to vote when their ballot is submitted, their vote counts if they become ineligible to vote by death or other reasons before election day. (2023)
  • Petitions About Domestic Abuse by Minors.  SB 45 allows minors 16 years old and older and emancipated minors to file for domestic abuse protective orders. (2023)
  • Responsibility for Payment of Wages.  SB 415 makes general contractors liable for unpaid wages if subcontractors do not pay their employees. (2023)
  • Restoration of Felons’ Civic Responsibilities.  SB 911 allows those convicted of felonies to serve on juries once they have completed the terms of their sentence.  Previous law allowed those who had served their sentences to run for office and vote, but not serve on juries. (2023)
  • Liability for Construction Defects.  SB 921 requires that condo associations be given at least two years to discover negligent construction problems before the developer is relieved of legal responsibility for defects they may have caused. (2023)
  • Prohibition on Voting in More Than One State.  Unless a voter changes their residence between primary elections, SB 1541 prohibits people from voting in more than one state. (2023)
  • Street maintenance.  SB 2008 offers liability incentives to the counties to take over streets where ownership is unknown, but the street is used by the public.  Maintenance on these streets is currently limited or does not happen at all. (2022)
  • Increasing penalty for negligent homicide.  SB 2163 increases the penalty for negligent homicide for drunk or drug-impaired drivers who have prior convictions for impaired driving or who are driving while their license is suspended or revoked. (2022)
  • Ignition interlock law update.  SB 3165 updates the ignition interlock law to make it more efficient and effective in stopping people from driving drunk. (2022)
  • Ranked choice voting.  SB 2162 institutes ranked choice voting for special Congressional and county council elections.  In races with a lot of candidates, the current system can result in someone with less than 10% support being elected.  Ranked choice voting (also known as instant  runoff voting) allows for several rounds of elections on one day.  Voters vote for their favorite candidate, their second favorite and so on.  The candidate with the fewest votes in the first round is eliminated.  If the person you ranked first is eliminated in the first round, your second ranked vote is counted in the next round.  This continues until you have a winner. (2022)
  • Authorizing an additional ICA judge.  The Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) is the second highest court in Hawai’i.  It handles the bulk of appeals from trial courts and is chronically behind.  SB 2390 authorizes an additional ICA judge to reduce the wait time for decisions. (2022)
  • Assistance animals.  SB 2002 makes it clear what questions can be asked of a person who wants to have an assistance animal in a building that does not allow pets.  It prohibits the use of vests and badges purchasable online as a means of verifying the need for the animal. (2022)
  • “Deep fakes” law.  SB 309 makes “deep fakes” illegal in certain situations.  “Deep fakes” are pictures or videos where the person who is apparently being portrayed is actually only a computer-generated image.  Technology has advanced to the point where these deep fakes are indistinguishable from the real person. (2021)
  • Vote by mail.  SB 548.  Hawaii moved to a vote by mail system in 2020.  It went very well and voter turnout was higher than it had been in decades.  There were a few glitches, however, and SB 548 is designed to address them. Among other things, it requires the Office of Elections in conjunction with the county clerks to determine as quickly as possible what the optimal number of voter service centers is. (2021)
  • Eliminating filing requirement.  SB 200 eliminates an unnecessary Campaign Spending Commission filing requirement for reporting late contributions if the candidate is not on the ballot for that election.  The information is already reported elsewhere. (2021)
  • Emergency orders.  Current law requires that emergency order violations be charged as misdemeanors which can result in a year in jail.  In addition, because someone charged with a misdemeanor can demand a jury trial, the court system was overwhelmed and thousands of emergency order violations have been dismissed entirely.  SB 540 allows emergency order violations to be designated as “infractions” which can be punished with only a fine.  Infractions charged under SB 540 will be processed like traffic tickets. (2021)
  • Euthanization of dogs.  SB 189 authorizes but does not require a judge to order a dog to be euthanized after it has bitten someone once. Current law requires that the dog have bitten twice before a judge can consider euthanizing it. Sometimes a first bite causes so much harm that this penalty may be necessary.  (2021)
  • Requiring persons moving firearms out of state to notify the county where the gun is registered.  SB 3054 helps keep county records up to date and discourages the use of Hawaii registered firearms in out-of-state crimes (2020).
  • Specifying charges for towing companies when a vehicle has been involved in an accident.  Before SB 2384 passed, towing companies could only charge certain amounts when a vehicle was towed by order of the police, but there were no restrictions on charges when a vehicle needed to be towed because of an accident. (2020)
  • Prohibits the use of coal for power generation after 2022.  SB 2629 will end the use of coal, one of the worst polluting fuels, in Hawaii at the end of 2022. (2020)
  • Strengthening anti-domestic violence laws.  SB 2638 establishes a five-year pilot program which adds a petty misdemeanor domestic violence charge.  This will allow judges to require anti-domestic violence training as part of a sentence without clogging the courts with misdemeanor cases where a jury trial can be demanded by the defendant. (2020)
  • Getting court-ordered help for mentally ill homeless.  SB 567 and SB 1124 make it easier to help the seriously mentally ill who often become homeless.  SB 567 provides funding to cover attorneys’ fees for those petitioning a court to help the severely mentally ill. (2019)
  • Broadening the power of the Small Business Regulatory Review Board to review and asses the impact on small businesses of both state and county administrative rules.  SB 1348 (2019)
  • Streamlining enforcement of trespass laws on commercial properties after an initial trespass notice has been given. SB 413 (2019)
  • Puts into law best practices for eyewitness identifications of suspects in criminal investigations.  SB 414 (2019)
  • Allowing the disabled to earn more without losing Medicaid; this removes a disincentive to gainful employment.  SB 330 (2019)
  • Allowing condo associations to install “building-integrated photovoltaic” windows and skylights that also produce electricity.  SB 272 (2019)
  • Ensuring that if a person was eligible to vote when he/she submitted their ballot, the ballot still counts if the person becomes ineligible, due to death or othe reasons, after the ballot was cast, but before election day.  SB 107 (2019)
  • Banning bump stocks.  SB 2046 (2018) banned these devices, which enable a semi-automatic weapon to mimic a fully automatic one.  They were used by the shooter in the Las Vegas massacre to kill a large number of people in a short time.
  • Sharing ballots on social media.  Allows a voter to distribute or share an electronic or digital image of the voter’s own marked ballot via social media or other means. This does not affect the law against campaigning in a polling place or improperly influencing a person’s vote. HB 27 (2016)
  • Sexual contact with a minor–Makes it a crime for a person in a position of authority to have sexual contact with a 16 or 17 year old. HB 1044 (2016)
  • Compensation for the wrongfully convicted. Provides compensation of conviction to persons who demonstrate that they were wrongfully convicted and imprisoned when actually innocent. HB 1046 (2016)
  • Assaults committed in the presence of a minor.  Provides that the sentence of a person convicted of certain assaults may be made more severe if the offense was committed in the presence of a minor.  HB 1517 (2016)
  • Supreme Court review of certain proceedings. Expedites judicial review of proceedings involving water resources, land use, public utilities, community development, and conservation districts, by taking them directly to the Supreme Court.  This law may speed a decision about the Thirty Meter Telescope but should not affect the substance of the decision. HB 1581 (2016)
  • Medications for the severely mentally ill. Intended to make it easier to keep mentally ill people on their medications, if they are a danger to themselves or others. HB 2559 (2016)
  • Penal Code revision. A major revision of the Penal Code, introduced by request of the Penal Code Review Committee.  This is a complex measure which, among other things, strengthens the habitual criminal statute regarding theft, decreasing the number of prior convictions needed for charging a person with being a habitual offender.  Karl served on the Penal Code Review Committee which was created by a resolution he introduced in 2015 (see HCR 155 below). HB 2561 (2016)  Click here to see the committee report.
  • Crime reporting. Requires police agencies to report crime incidents to the Attorney General; no such reporting has previously been required. HB 2671 (2016)
  • Disclosure of SuperPAC sources. In the Citizens United decision, the US Supreme Court allowed so-called “SuperPAC’s” to spend unlimited amounts on campaigns. HB 1491 requires SuperPAC’s operating in Hawaii to fully disclose their sources of funding. HB 1491 (2015)
  • Trustee compensation. Updates how trustees for private trusts are to be compensated. HB 26 (2015)
  • Cost estimate for joining parks. Requested a cost estimate for covering over H-1 between Nuuanu Stream and Queen Emma Street, thus re-joining park areas on both sides of the freeway that were separated at the time of construction of H-1. HCR (House Concurrent Resolution) 29 (2015)  Click here to see the report.
  • Penal Code Review Committee. Established a committee to recommend revisions to the Hawaii Penal Code. (Karl was appointed to this committee.)  HCR 155 (2015)  Click here to see the committee report.
  • Hawaiian language translation. Hawaii has two official languages, English and Hawaiian; this resolution requested the Judiciary to convene a taskforce to examine ways to provide proper Hawaiian language translation within the Judiciary. HCR 217 (2015)  Click here to see the taskforce report.
  • Legal services for low and moderate income people. Requested a working group to determine administration of civil legal services to people with low or moderate income. HR (House Resolution) 12 (2015)  Click here to see the report of the working group; this report resulted in the passage of HB 2121 in 2016, which added an additional $150,000 for legal services.
  • Discarded tires. Made a $50,000 appropriation to assist communities with removal of illegally discarded tires. HB 2509 (2014)
  • Pay cards. Requires that employers paying employees by pay card may do so only with the employee’s voluntary consent, and under conditions limiting fees and requiring that the card may be used at a variety of banks, ATM locations, and retailers. HB 1814 (2014)
  • Sidewalk obstruction. Requires that there must be at least a 36 inch corridor so that pedestrians and wheelchairs can use the walk. HB 1660 (2014)
  • Attorney’s fees for frivolous claims. Protects both employers and employees against frivolous or groundless workers’ compensation claims by explicitly allowing attorney’s fees to be included in costs assessed against a party bringing such a claim. HB 2099 (2012)
  • Utility metering for condominiums. Authorizes condominium associations to require metering of utilities for each unit separately. HB 1746 (2012)
  • Meaningless reports. Removed a requirement that a certain department of the state government report on a program that it had nothing to do with, and consequently nothing to report. HB 1698 (2012)
  • Prevailing wage violations. Provides that if a contractor violates the prevailing wage requirement on several projects, the violation at each project constitutes a separate offense. HB 1434 (2011)
  • Solicitation of prostitutes. Creates an offense for soliciting a prostitute within 750 feet of a school or park; such offense is a misdemeanor punishable with up to a year in jail, instead of a petty misdemeanor punishable by up to 30 days in jail. HB 44 (2011)
  • Investments in SLARS. Closed the loophole that allowed the State to invest in so-called student loan-backed auction rate securities (SLARS) as short-term investments. The State purchased over $1 billion in SLARS from a major bank as cash equivalents only to have the market for them freeze up. While these securities were repurchased by the bank ahead of schedule in 2013, the returns on them were below what other long-term investments might have yielded. The Senate version of this bill, SB 2825 (introduced by Senate President Hanabusa at Karl’s request), passed the Legislature and was signed into law by the Governor. HB 1870 (2010)
  • Wage errors. Equalized the time the State and public employees have to seek redress for overpaid or underpaid wages. Before HB 111 became law, employees had to make a claim within two years if their wages had been underpaid. The State had an unlimited period of time to bring claims against employees who had been overpaid. HB 111 (2009)
  • Habitual solicitation. Created the offense of habitual solicitation of prostitution. This bill increased the penalty for customers of prostitutes who repeatedly patronize them. It did not alter the penalty for prostitutes themselves. HB 3002 (2008)
  • Alcohol consumption in public housing. Prohibits consumption of alcohol in common areas of public housing complexes. The Senate companion, SB 2141 (introduced by Senator Chun Oakland), was enacted. This bill was designed to cut down on fights in public housing complexes such as Mayor Wright homes. HB 1984 (2008)
  • Public urination and defecation.  Prohibited public urination or defecation in Chinatown and Downtown. HB 1978 (2008)