STAND. COM. REP. NO. 319

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 816

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Water, Land, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 816 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE KAHO‘OLAWE ISLAND RESERVE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to apportion ten percent of the conveyance tax to the Kaho‘olawe Rehabilitation Trust Fund.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission; Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana; ‘Ahahui Malama I Ka Lokahi; Ocean Tourism Coalition; Jenna Ishii; Ka‘iulani M. Murphy; Michele Chouteau McLean; Vince Kana‘i Dodge; David Scibor; Ethan Porter; Natashja Tong; Kevin Gavagan; Eric Brundage; and Kurt Ogomori.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Taxation.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission is funded predominantly by a dwindling trust fund created in 1994 during the federal unexploded ordnance cleanup of Kaho‘olawe.  This federal appropriation, totaling $44,000,000 over a period of several years, although considerable, was not substantial enough to establish a sustainable endowment for the long-term restoration of Kaho‘olawe.  For the past sixteen years, the initial federal funding has allowed the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission to establish many of its innovative programs that emphasize ancestral and traditional knowledge, utilize a cultural approach of respect and connectivity to the environment, and integrate ancient and modern resource management techniques.

 

     Your Committee is sympathetic to the concerns of the numerous individuals who testified in support of the original measure, and finds that this measure will help provide the financial stability necessary to continue the Commission's work.

 

     Your Committee further finds that since the State will assume responsibility for funding the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission under this measure by directing a portion of the conveyance tax into the Trust Fund, an appropriate state agency should oversee the Commission to ensure accountability in the use of those state funds.

 

     Therefore, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Eliminating the Commission's oversight of the Department of Land and Natural Resources with regard to the control and management of the island reserve; and

 

     (2)  Providing that the Commission and other state agencies shall be subject to the oversight of the Department with regard to the control and management of the island reserve.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 816, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 816, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, and Housing,

 

 

 

____________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair