STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3582

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2605

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2605, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate $850,000 to establish, administer, and support on-the-job training for individuals who are dislocated from employment due to the impending closure of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company on Maui.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Chamber of Commerce Hawaii; Maui Filipino Chamber of Commerce; Alexander and Baldwin, Inc.; Hawaii Construction Alliance; Hawaii Farm Bureau; Hawaii Government Employees Association; Hawaii State AFL-CIO; ILWU Local 142; Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii; and one individual.

 

     Your Committee received written comments on this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

 

     Your Committee notes that the owner of the Makena Beach and Golf Resort on Maui has announced that the resort will be closing on July 1, 2016.

 

     Your Committee finds that the closures of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company and Makena Beach and Golf Resort will lead to a loss of more than one thousand jobs on the island of Maui.  Although job training assistance will be available for some employees of Hawaiian Commercial & Sugar Company through the recent federal Trade Adjustment Act certification, other dislocated workers will not qualify for that assistance.

 

     Your Committee further finds that providing additional opportunities for employment training and other activities that assist these workers' transition into new employment will help protect and enhance the workforce and economy of Maui County.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adding reference to the closure of Makena Beach and Golf Resort, which will increase unemployment in Maui County, and adjusting references to job losses accordingly;

 

     (2)  Including a more detailed description of the range of employment training and other services that will be funded by the appropriation in this measure; and

 

     (3)  Changing the appropriation from $850,000 to an unspecified amount 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 H.B. No. 2605, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2605, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair