Haw. Rev. Stat. § 84-11.5

Current through the 2024 Legislative Session
Section 84-11.5 - [Effective 7/1/2025] Reporting of gifts
(a) Every legislator and employee shall file a gifts disclosure statement with the state ethics commission no later than July 31 of each year if all the following conditions are met:
(1) The legislator or employee, or spouse or dependent child of a legislator or employee, received directly or indirectly from one source any gift or gifts valued singly or in the aggregate in excess of $200, whether the gift is in the form of money, service, goods, or in any other form;
(2) The source of the gift or gifts have interests that may be affected by official action or lack of action by the legislator or employee; and
(3) The gift is not exempted by subsection (d) from reporting requirements under this subsection.
(b) The report shall cover the period from July 1 of the preceding calendar year through June 30 of the year of the report.
(c) The gifts disclosure statement shall contain the following information:
(1) A description of the gift;
(2) A good faith estimate of the value of the gift;
(3) The date the gift was received; and
(4) The name of the person, business entity, or organization from whom, or on behalf of whom, the gift was received.
(d) Excluded from the reporting requirements of this section are the following:
(1) Gifts received by will or intestate succession;
(2) Gifts received by way of distribution of any inter vivos or testamentary trust established by a spouse or ancestor;
(3) Gifts from a spouse, betrothed, or any relative within four degrees of consanguinity or the spouse or betrothed of such a relative. A gift from any such person is a reportable gift if the person is acting as an agent or intermediary for any person not covered by this paragraph;
(4) Political campaign contributions that comply with state law;
(5) Anything available to or distributed to the public generally without regard to the official status of the recipient;
(6) Gifts that, within thirty days after receipt, are returned to the giver or delivered to a public body or to a bona fide educational or charitable organization without the donation being claimed as a charitable contribution for tax purposes; and
(7) Exchanges of approximately equal value on holidays, birthday, or special occasions.
(e) Failure of a legislator or employee to file a gifts disclosure statement as required by this section shall be a violation of this chapter.
(f) This section shall not affect the applicability of section 84-11.
(g) The state ethics commission shall provide a method for filing gift disclosure statements. The commission may require that gift disclosure statements be filed electronically.
(h) For purposes of this section, "legislator or employee" includes any individual who was a legislator or employee for any portion of the period from July 1 of the preceding calendar year through June 30 of the year of the report.

HRS § 84-11.5

Amended by L 2024, c 189,§ 3, eff. 7/1/2025.
Amended by L 2024, c 189,§ 2, eff. 7/1/2024.
Amended by L 2019, c 120,§ 2, eff. 7/1/2019.
L 1992, c 322, pt of §1
This section is set out more than once due to postponed, multiple, or conflicting amendments.