STAND. COM. REP. NO. 679

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 949
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.B.
No. 949 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this Act is to direct the agribusiness
development corporation to allot the necessary financial and
human resources necessary to plan, design, and construct an
agricultural subdivision in the Hamakua district in the island of
Hawaii. Appropriates $1 for that purpose, to be expended by the
corporation.

     Your Committee finds that hundreds of acres of former
sugarcane land throughout the State have laid idle since the
closure of the last plantations.  Meanwhile, hundreds of
displaced sugar workers are searching for jobs and opportunities
to enter into agricultural endeavors.  In 1994, the Legislature
created the Agribusiness Development Corporation to facilitate
and promote agriculture in the State through the reuse of former
plantation lands, water delivery systems, roadways, and other
necessary infrastructure.

     Testimonies in support of this measure were received from
the Agribusiness Development Corporation, the Hawaii Farm Bureau
and the Big Island Farm Bureau.

     Your Committee, upon careful consideration, has amended this
bill by changing the findings and purpose of the bill by

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 679
                                 Page 2

 
directing the Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) to
establish agricultural parks/developments in the most expeditious
and cost-effective manner.  Your Committee further amended this
measure by authorizing ADC the actions and specific activities to
be considered by ADC in cooperation with and assistance from
financial institutions, rather than alloting the necessary
financial and human resources necessary to plan, design, and
construct an agricultural subdivision in the Hamakua district of
the island of Hawaii.  Your Committee further amended this bill
by stipulating that the Hawaii agricultural development revolving
fund shall be the depository for all revenues from assessments,
tolls, and appropriations made by the legislature to the fund and
interest on investments attributable to agricultural
parks/developments and that moneys in this fund be expended by
the ADC for necessary expenditures incurred to establish, operate
and maintain agricultural parks/developments.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your
Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No.
949, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second
Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 949, H.D. 1, and
be referred to the Committee on Finance.


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



                                   ______________________________
                                   FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair