STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1184

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 807

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor & Public Employment, to which was referred S.B. No. 807, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SALARIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to adjust statutorily established salaries of state positions whose salaries are not set by the Executive Salary Commission.

The Department of Human Resources Development, Department of Budget and Finance, Department of Accounting and General Services, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board, Department of Health, Office of the Ombudsman, Office of the Auditor, Advisory Board on Veteran's Services, Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii, and Hawaii Paroling Authority testified in support of this measure. The Acting Director of the Legislative Reference Bureau testified in support of the intent of this measure.

Your Committee understands that in the past, heads of executive departments, trial court judges, the administrative director of the courts, and heads of the legislative service agencies received similar salaries and that recent changes in the way various salaries are calculated have resulted in varying degrees of salary increases for a number of positions, while others have not seen any increase.

This is especially true among the legislative service agencies that, unlike their counterparts in the executive and judicial branches, have not witnessed a salary increase since 1990. Your Committee also notes that during these intervening years, even the staff of legislative service agencies have seen increases in their salaries of approximately 35 to 40 percent, allowing a number of these agency employees to earn more than their supervisors.

Your Committee finds that although executive agencies deserve salary increases, legislative service agencies whose salaries are statutorily established are also deserving of pay increases, which this bill does not accomplish.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its substance and inserting the substance of H.B. No. 1528, H.D. 2. As amended, this bill creates parity between the branches of government by adjusting the statutorily established salaries of various department heads and deputy positions, including the:

(1) Chief Election Officer;

(2) Auditor;

(3) Legislative Reference Bureau Director;

(4) Chairperson of the Hawaii Labor Relations Board;

(5) Ombudsman;

(6) Administrator of the State Procurement Office;

(7) Stadium Authority Manager;

(8) Vice-director of Civil Defense;

(9) Deputy for Water Resource Management;

(10) Executive Director of the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii;

(11) Public Utilities Commission Chairperson;

(12) Recycling Coordinator;

(13) Hawaii Paroling Authority Chairperson;

(14) Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board Chairperson;

(15) Commissioner of Financial Institutions;

(16) State Public Defender;

(17) Director of the Executive Office on Aging;

(18) Director of the Office of Veterans' Services; and

(19) Executive Director of the Office of Community Services.

The bill has also been amended by:

(1) Changing its effective date to July 1, 2010, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 807, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 807, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Public Employment,

 

____________________________

KIRK CALDWELL, Chair