STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1333-00

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 2000

                                 RE: S.B. No. 2430
                                     H.D. 1




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2000
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which
was referred S.B. No. 2430 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CIVIL RIGHTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to protect the civil rights of
all people by prohibiting discrimination in housing based on
sexual orientation.

     Testimony in support of this measure was received from the
Hawaii Civil Rights Commission, Hawaii State Commission on the
Status of Women, American Civil Liberties Union of Hawaii,
Friends of Marriage Project, Lambda Aloha, American Friends
Service Committee, and several concerned individuals.  Testimony
in opposition to this measure was received from Christian Voice
of Hawaii, Hawaii Family Forum, Pro-Family Hawaii, and several
concerned individuals.  Testimony commenting on this measure was
also received from Brigham Young University-Hawaii Campus, Hawaii
Catholic Conference, Seventh-Day Adventist Church, and two
concerned individuals.

     Discrimination based on sexual orientation is currently
prohibited only in the area of employment.  A person's ability to
find shelter, a basic need, should not be limited by his or her
sexual orientation.  Adding sexual orientation as a protected
status in housing transactions is a positive step toward
uniformity in all state laws regarding civil rights.  Your
Committee finds that the prohibition against discrimination based

 
 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1333-00
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on a person's sexual orientation must be extended to real estate
transactions to ensure that all of Hawaii's citizens are treated
fairly and equally.

     This measure also adds "familial status" to the blockbusting
section of the housing law to correct an inadvertent omission
when the law was amended in 1992.  Your Committee finds that this
change is required to make state law substantially similar to
federal fair housing law.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by providing an
exemption to the anti-discrimination provision in housing law for
the rental of housing accommodations located on property used for
church purposes, with the standards used to determine the scope
of the exemption being the same as those used in real property
tax law.

     The exemption applies to "property used for church purposes,
including incidental activities, parsonages, and church grounds."
This language was taken from Section 246-32(b)(3), Hawaii Revised
Statutes (HRS), which exempts church property from real property
taxes.  Section 246-32(b)(3), HRS, was in effect superseded when
article VIII, section 3 of the Hawaii Constitution was ratified
in 1978.  However, since then, all four counties have enacted
ordinances containing substantially identical language.  

     Your Committee chose to track the "church purposes" language
in order to delineate between property that is used by a church
for a religious purpose, and property that is used by a church
for a secular or commercial purpose.  The exemption should apply
to the former use, but not the latter.  In instances where
property is used for both religious and commercial purposes, the
exemption should only apply to the portion of the premises which
is used exclusively for purposes within the conditions necessary
for exemption.  In situations where any portion of property that
is otherwise exempt, but has as its primary purpose the
production of income (even if the income is to be used for or in
furtherance of the exempt purpose), that portion of the revenue-
generating property should not be exempt.  

     While this amendment does not provide a "blanket" exemption
to religious institutions, it will allow them an opportunity to
argue that their property serves a church purpose, thus
qualifying for the exemption.  To prove a church purpose,
religious institutions will be required to employ standards used
by counties in making this determination for real property tax
purposes.  It should be noted that a religious institution is not
necessarily required to actually obtain a real property tax

 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1333-00
                                 Page 3

 
exemption for "church purposes" in order to qualify for an
exemption under the housing anti-discrimination law.

     Technical, nonsubstantive amendments have also been made for
clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to
this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and
purpose of S.B. No. 2430, as amended herein, and recommends that
it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No.
2430, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Judiciary &
                                   Hawaiian Affairs,



                                   ______________________________
                                   ERIC G. HAMAKAWA, Chair