STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1344

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 172

       H.D. 1

       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 H.B. No. 172, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION TO THE EMERGENCY AND BUDGET RESERVE FUND,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys from the general fund into the emergency and budget reserve fund.

 

     The Department of Budget and Finance submitted written comments on this measure.

 

Earlier this session, your Committee heard the companion to this measure, Senate Bill No. 1312, and considered whether, pursuant to article VII, section 6, of the Hawaii Constitution, the Legislature should provide a tax refund or tax credit to state taxpayers or make a deposit into the emergency and budget reserve fund.  However, section 328L-3(a)(3), Hawaii Revised Statutes, prohibits the Legislature from making a deposit into the emergency and budget fund for fiscal year 2014-2015.  The Attorney General suggested that compliance with article VII, section 6, of the Hawaii Constitution may still be achieved via a deposit, rather than a tax credit or tax refund, through the enactment of a session law that would have the effect of amending section 328L-3(a)(3), Hawaii Revised Statutes, only for fiscal year 2014-2015.  Your Committee subsequently amended Senate Bill No. 1312 pursuant to the advice of the Attorney General.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its substantive contents and replacing them with sections 1, 2, and 3 of Senate Bill No. 1312, S.D. 1.  As amended, this measure:

 

(1)  Requires the Director of Finance to transfer the total sum of the tax credit or tax refund for fiscal year 2014-2015, as determined by the Legislature pursuant to the Hawaii Constitution, to the emergency and budget reserve fund; and

 

(2)  Makes an appropriation from the general fund for fiscal year 2014-2015 to the emergency and budget reserve fund.

 

     Your Committee has also amended this measure by 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 H.B. No. 172, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 172, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair