STAND. COM. REP. NO. 836

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 703

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 703, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SOLID WASTE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to address the applicability of the solid waste management surcharge.

 

     More specifically, this measure:

 

     (1)  Defines "waste-to-energy facility";

 

     (2)  Creates a distinction between solid waste disposed of at landfills or transferred outside the State and solid waste disposed of at waste-to-energy facilities;

 

     (3)  Clarifies that a solid waste management surcharge applies to solid waste transferred outside the State for disposal;

 

     (4)  Exempts ash from the solid waste management surcharge if the ash was from a waste-to-energy facility and was later disposed of in a landfill; and

 

     (5)  Establishes a solid waste management surcharge for solid waste disposed of at waste-to-energy facilities, unless the waste-to-energy facility accepts less than 150,000 tons of solid waste annually.

 

     Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Health.

 

     Your Committee finds that the solid waste management surcharge is the primary funding mechanism for the Department of Health's solid waste regulatory program.  This program regulates waste treatment operations and solid waste management facilities including landfill, waste-to-energy, recycling, and composting.

 

Your Committee notes that the solid waste management surcharge was last increased in 1997 to thirty-five cents per ton.  Your Committee also notes that Hawaii has the lowest surcharge that has been imposed by state regulatory programs, and at this surcharge amount, the solid waste regulatory program expects to be insolvent by fiscal year 2017.  Your Committee finds that this measure is necessary to clarify the applicability of the surcharge and to preserve the fiscal stability of the solid waste regulatory program.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 703, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair