STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2002

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2125

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2125 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COFFEE BERRY BORER,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to extend the pesticide subsidy program manager position through the fiscal year immediately following the program sunset date.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Office of the Mayor of the County of Hawaii; Hawaii Coffee Association; Hawaii Coffee Company; Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.; Hawaii Farm Bureau; and one individual.

 

     Your Committee finds that the pesticide subsidy program in the Department of Agriculture assists coffee growers with offsetting the costs of purchasing certain pesticides known to be effective against the coffee berry borer, a highly destructive coffee pest.  The program was established to run for five years.  Your Committee also finds that the current pesticide subsidy program manager position is a full-time, temporary position that is exempt from civil service and collective bargaining laws.  Due to other laws, this exemption will expire on June 30, 2018.  The pesticide subsidy program took longer than anticipated to implement, thus the program sunset date has been extended from June 30, 2019, to June 30, 2021; however, the exemption of the pesticide subsidy program manager position has not also been extended.  Applications for a subsidy for pesticide purchases made in a fiscal year must be filed in the immediately following fiscal year.  Therefore, for pesticide purchases made in the last fiscal year of the program, from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, applications for subsidies must be filed in the immediately following fiscal year, anytime from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022.  The manager position will be needed to process these applications for subsidies for costs incurred in the final year of the program, thus, your Committee finds that the exemption must be extended.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the effective date to June 29, 2018, to ensure the current exemption from chapters 76 and 89, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for the subsidy program manager position continues until June 30, 2022, the expiration date of the position; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2125, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2125, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

 

 

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair