STAND. COM. REP. 2467

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2269

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Economic Development and Science, Arts, and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 2269 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENTERPRISE ZONES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to remove provisions that restrict telecommunications from being designated a qualified business for enterprise zone purposes.

The Sandwich Isles Communications, Inc. and Verizon Hawaii testified in support of the measure. The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and the Department of Taxation offered comments on the measure.

Your Committees find that this measure will enable telecommunication service providers to offer reliable and affordable telephone and broadband services to under served communities located within enterprise zones, such as for Native Hawaiian homesteaders.

Your Committees have amended the measure to permit telecommunication service providers to be designated as a "qualified business" for enterprise zone purposes, provided that the telecommunication service providers are not only engaged in telecommunication related business within an enterprise zone, but also deliver the majority of telecommunication related services in that same enterprise zone or in another enterprise zone.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Science, Arts, and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2269, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2269, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Science, Arts, and Technology,

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DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

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CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair