STAND. COM. REP. NO. 787

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1305

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1305 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS TO THE COUNTY OF KAUAI OFFICE OF THE PROSECUTING ATTORNEY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys as a grant-in-aid to the County of Kauai Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit and the Victim Witness Assistance Program. 

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the County of Kauai Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Hawaii County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, Maui Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, Department of the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu, and the Crime Victim Compensation Commission.  Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General. 

 

     Your Committee finds that the Career Criminal Prosecution Unit handles the most serious career criminals and that the Victim Witness Assistance Program provides direct support services to the victims and witnesses of crimes committed in Hawaii.  Your Committee also finds that funding for these services has been reduced significantly in prior years.  Your Committee believes that increased funding is necessary to maximize the effectiveness of both of these important programs.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

(1)  Changing the appropriation amounts to unspecified sums; and

 

(2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1305, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1305, S.D. 1.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair