STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1424

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 724

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 724 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CAMPAIGN CONTRIBUTIONS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the prohibition against contributions to a candidate committee or noncandidate committee by state and county contractors to include state and county grantees and the owners, officers, and immediate family members of a state or county contractor or state or county grantee.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Campaign Spending Commission, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, and five individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Commission to Improve Standards of Conduct.

 

     Your Committee finds that under existing campaign finance law, only a state or county contractor is prohibited from making campaign contributions.  However, owners, officers, employees, and family members of the contractor can still make contributions to election campaigns.  Grantees, similar to contractors, receive state funds and thus should be treated similarly in the context of political contributions.  This measure extends the ban to grantees of the state and counties, and the owners and officers of the grantee, and their immediate family, which will reduce the potential for donations to unduly influence policymaking.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by specifying that section 11-335, Hawaii Revised Statutes, shall not apply to the partial public financial system.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 724, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 724, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair