STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2587

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2492

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2492, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO OFFENSES AGAINST PROPERTY RIGHTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to add the crime of criminal property damage to agricultural and aquacultural equipment and supplies.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Agriculture, the City and County of Honolulu Prosecuting Attorney, the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, the Hawaii Aquaculture Association, the Maui County Farm Bureau, Meadow Gold Dairies, the Pineapple Growers Association of Hawaii, the Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, and the Hawaii Farm Bureau. The Office of the Public Defender submitted testimony in opposition to this measure.

Your Committee finds that increasing the penalty for criminal property damage offenses is consistent with the great impact these crimes have on Hawaii's agricultural and aquacultural industries and the ability of individual farmers and ranchers to earn a living. This measure will strengthen the penalties for criminal property damage by recognizing the actual loss of agricultural and aquacultural property.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2492, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair