VIDEO: Once again, a bill that would have brought lifeguards to the popular, and sometimes dangerous, Kua Bay in Kailua-Kona has died at the State Legislature.
House Bill 2044 HD1 SD1, which would have appropriated funds “to establish four full-time equivalent (4.0 FTE) state ocean safety officers at Manini‘owali Beach at Kua Bay in the Kekaha Kai State Park and to purchase ocean safety officer equipment,” was passed through the House, and even given a positive recommendation by the Senate Committee on Water and land, before it stalled in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
“Every year we submit something, we go through the process, we go lobby, and it ends up dying,” said a frustrated Councilman Dru Kanuha during a recent council finance committee meeting.
“I’m gonna jump on my soapbox,” said Fire Chief Darren Rosario at the same finance committee meeting, “and say that’s what the TAT (Transient Accommodations Tax) was intended for. It’s (Hawaii) County people providing protection at a state asset, so the state needs to step up and give us the money.”