STAND. COM. REP. NO. 822

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 475

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 475, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC ASSISTANCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to increase assistance allowance payments from the Department of Human Services to various recipients of financial assistance.

Specifically, this measure changes the base for the calculation of the standard of need from the 1993 federal poverty level to the level for the current year and updates that level annually. The assistance allowance remains at certain percentages of the standard of need. Previously, the standard of need did not apply to general assistance to households without minor dependents. However, the measure applies the standard of need to general assistance to households with and without minor dependents and includes the aged, blind, and disabled.

Your Committee finds that, although the cost of living has increased each year, in Hawaii the standard of need, upon which is based a recipient's assistance allowance, remains set at the federal poverty level in 1993. Your Committee believes that some accommodation needs to be made that allows individuals the wherewithal to maintain a household. It is your Committee's intention to promote further discussion on precisely how to do this.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Deleting the year 1993 with reference to the federal poverty level and replacing it with an unspecified year;

(2) Deleting language regarding annually updating the federal poverty level; and

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2099, for the purpose of stimulating further discussion.

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. 475, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 475, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair