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The Senate Committee on Economic Development & Technology, chaired by Sen. Carol Fukunaga, continued its consensus-building approach in developing Hawaii’s technology industry sectors during 2009-2010. The committee worked with the House Committee on Economic Revitalization & Business (ERB) to draft a package of technology bills to grow high-tech and renewable energy businesses in the state.

Unfortunately, Hawaii’s economic downturn and declining tax revenues resulted in major cuts to Department of Business and Economic Development programs and resource reallocations to help close a $1.2 billion budget shortfall. The tech package faded into history, culminating with the December 2010 expiration of Act 221, Hawaii’s much-touted technology tax incentive.

One bright spot, however, has been in the digital media area, with Hawaii students distinguishing themselvs as among the top in the United States. A handful of schools have won first place awards in the national Student Television News Network (STN) competitions. Of particular note is the Waianae Searider Productions, which has helped fuel unprecedented interest and growth in OLELO’s annual “Youth Exchange” competition.   This year, more than 1,300 students from elementary to secondary school levels submitted 582 entries — a 257% increase over 2003's 150 entries.

Capitalizing on the strong skillsets of Hawaii’s student media creators, PBS Hawaii launched its first-in-the-nation weekly student news program, “Hiki No!” (CAN DO) in February 2011. The first 12-week season aired news stories produced and presented by middle and high school media students from 55 Hawaii schools. On the local production front, CBS Studios’ remake of “Hawaii 5-0” won strong support from a global fan base – and from the Hawaii State Legislature.

Much of the inspiration for Hawaii’s young digital videographers may be traced to the vision of local film producer Chris Lee, a former head of Columbia/TriStar and founder of the University of Hawaii's Academy for Creative Media (ACM).  Far from a pipe dream, Chris has described an indigenous digital media industry especially suited to Hawaii's unique attributes.  And there are already glimmers of success - youthful film entrepreneurs and ACM graduates have built home-grown media powerhouses Makaha Studios (ranked #1 of Pacific Business News' “2010 Fastest-Growing Businesses in Hawaii”) and Bluewater Multimedia.

Since 2006 (when Hawaii’s Act 88 production credits were increased to 15% on Oahu and 20% on the neighbor islands), the State Legislature has pursued a broad range of film/digital media tax incentives to help achieve the vision of a digital media industry in West Oahu. This year, Hollywood production company, Relativity Media, came before the legislature with a package of tax credits aimed at growing Hawaii’s existing film/TV industry.  They proposed a three-pronged approach consisting of workforce incentives, production tax credits and facilities credits. Although the 2011 session’s budget shortfalls prevented serious consideration of these tax breaks, many testifiers endorsed the proposals as a good fit for Hawaii’s digital storytellers and technical crew base, and Senator Fukunaga will be looking to adopt a viable program to stimulate the growth of this industry segment in the future.

Chris Lee's WOEDA Speech