In listening to the hearing one thing that struck me as entertaining was the back and forth between the Senators and HTA Geroge Szigeti. You could tell that Szigeti had only a couple of bullets to answer the Senators questions about why a 1% increase in the TAT will detrimentally affect tourism in Hawaii. 
Lets just say for the layman listening to Szigeti's answers, he didn't convince too many people that this would so negatively affect tourism. What he could have said was "We got lucky the last time the Legislature got together in 2009 and increased the TAT then, because Tourism rebounded and such" 
But no, and he, instead, was the man to take the bullet in answering these questions instead of the hotelers (outside of Outrigger, I'll give them that - they showed up and took their bullets personally). 
So to the HTA chief - you have another chance in the House - perhaps come up with better points - because it's 1 for the Leg and 0 for you.