STAND. COM. REP. NO. 267

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1285

       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 Economic Development and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 1285 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAPITAL INVESTMENTS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to include agency‑wide technology and computer systems with an estimated useful life of greater than seven years as capital investments to allow their costs to be financed with bond funds and depreciated as capital investments.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Accounting and General Services, Department of Education, and City and County of Honolulu.

 

     Your Committee finds that the State has an immediate and pressing need to upgrade its legacy systems and hardware to ensure reliable, efficient, and effective technology solutions for state agencies and transparency and access to government records and services for the public.  The Department of Accounting and General Services has testified that the replacement of the twenty‑five year old Financial Accounting Management Information System has been estimated at $50,000,000, and alternative systems are estimated at the same or a greater cost.  With the State facing an $800,000,000 deficit in the coming biennium, General Fund monies are less likely to be available for long-term, major system replacements.

 

     Your Committee is in agreement that treating these agency‑wide technology upgrades as a capital improvement project and allowing general obligation bond financing for these upgrades is one viable solution.  Your Committee notes, however, that the competition for bond financing is as rigorous as the quest for General Fund support.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development and Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1285, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1285, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development and Technology,

 

 

 

____________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair