STAND. COM. REP. NO 472

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 996

       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 Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 996 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ETHICS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate $60,000 for each of fiscal years 2015-2016 and 2016-2017 to the State Ethics Commission to design and develop a system that allows filers to electronically file required statements and reports with the Commission.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, Common Cause Hawaii, and one individual.

     Your Committee finds that this measure will enable the State Ethics Commission to allow filers to electronically file their required statements and reports by appropriating funds for a new electronic filing system.  Your Committee urges the State Ethics Commission to ensure that any new electronic filing system procured by the Commission complies with the federal Americans with Disabilities Act.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Replacing the specified sum of $60,000 with a blank amount; and

     (2)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 996, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 996, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair