STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1135

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 541

       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 Higher Education and the Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 541, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII TUITION AND FEES SPECIAL FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

     (1)  Require each University of Hawaii campus to prepare an operations plan, to be reviewed by the University of Hawaii President and Vice President for Budget and Finance and Chief Financial Officer (Vice President for Budget and Finance) each year; and

     (2)  Require the monies in the University of Hawaii tuition and fees special fund for each University of Hawaii campus to lapse to the credit of Program ID No. UH900 (University of Hawaii, system wide support).

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the University of Hawaii System and three individuals.

     Your Committee finds that requirements built into this measure enable the President and Vice President for Budget and Finance to exercise significantly greater control over operations that occur on each University of Hawaii campus.  More specifically, this measure provides the opportunity for the President and Vice President for Budget and Finance to review an operations plan prepared annually by each University of Hawaii campus.  This review process further enables the approval, modification, or withholding of planned expenditures if the criteria for the operations plan are not met.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Amending the University of Hawaii, system wide support program identification number from "UH900" to "UOH900";

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

     (3)  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 Higher Education and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 541, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 541, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education and the Arts,

________________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair