STAND. COM. REP. NO. 867

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1423

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1423 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEATH CARE INDUSTRY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to provide for additional protections for consumers of cemetery or funeral services. 

 

     This measure, among other things:

 

     (1)  Adds a new section to chapter 442, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to establish procedures for the cancellation, termination, and refund of pre-need funeral and interment services contracts;

 

     (2)  Requires a cemetery authority to file with the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and maintain a map of every plot, crypt, or niche, and maintain an accurate record of the identity of each person buried or interred in the cemetery;

 

     (3)  Ensures that contracts for pre-need interment of funeral services retain priority over liens and mortgages of a pre-need interment or funeral services authority if the authority's pre-need trusts are not fully funded;

 

     (4)  Requires disclosure in clear and plain language of the terms of a pre-need funeral or interment services contract;

 

     (5)  Clarifies the Director of Commerce and Consumer Affairs' authority to inspect the books, records, and papers of a cemetery or pre-need funeral or interment services authority; and

 

     (6)  Increases the fine from $1,000 to $5,000 for violations of the chapter of law regulating cemetery or pre-need funeral or interment services authorities.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Regulated Industries Complaint Office of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the Funeral Consumers Alliance Hawaii, and Mililani Group, Inc.  Comments were submitted by the Hawaii Funeral Directors Association and Ballard Mortuary, Inc.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure will materially advance and improve the level of consumer protection afforded Hawaii's cemetery and funeral services consumers by establishing procedures for the cancellation, termination, and refund of pre-funeral and pre-interment needs, as well as implementing other requirements related to the death care industry.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, in the interest of further discussion and by making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purpose of style.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1423, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1423, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 


Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Affordable Housing,

 

 

 

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair