Dedicates 25 percent of the conveyance tax to the rental housing trust fund; and 75 percent to the natural area reserve fund. Directs DLNR to disburse 50 percent of the funds in the natural area reserve fund to the natural area reserves system and 20 percent to: natural area partnership and forest stewardship programs; and projects undertaken in accordance with watershed management plans.

A BILL FOR AN ACT

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii is blessed with unique natural resources, many of which are found nowhere else in the world. In 1970, the legislature established the natural area reserves system (NARS) to "preserve in perpetuity specific land and water areas which support communities, as relatively unmodified as possible, of the natural flora and fauna, as well as geological sites, of Hawaii." Within the NARS are some of the most biologically rich ecosystems remaining in the Hawaiian Islands, as well as habitat for threatened and endangered species, important Hawaiian cultural sites, and essential watershed for Hawaii’s people and the economy. All but two of the natural area reserves are on ceded land.

The legislature finds that adequate staffing and funding to actively manage the natural area reserves are necessary to ensure the protection of these special places and resources. Since its inception, the NARS has been supported by the state general fund through direct appropriations by the legislature which fluctuate from year to year. Although the legislature has established permanent dedicated funding for state-private conservation partnerships on private land, there is no dedicated source of funding for the NARS on public, state-managed land.

The purpose of this Act is to establish permanent adequate funding for the NARS by dedicating thirty-seven and one-half per cent of the conveyance tax to the NARS. The legislature finds that this Act is consistent with the original purpose and intent of Act 139, Session Laws of Hawaii 1970, which established the statewide system of natural area reserves to be preserved for the enjoyment of future generations and to provide base lines against which changes that were being made in the environment could be measured.

SECTION 2. Section 247-7, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§247-7 Disposition of taxes. [All] Twenty-five per cent of all taxes collected under this chapter each fiscal year shall be paid into the [state treasury to the credit of the general fund of the State, to be used and expended for the purposes for which the general fund was created and exists by law; provided that of the taxes collected each fiscal year, twenty-five per cent shall be paid into the] rental housing trust fund established by section 201G-432 and [twenty-five] seventy-five per cent shall be paid into the natural area reserve fund established by section 195-9; provided that fifty per cent of the funds paid into the natural area reserve fund shall be annually disbursed to the natural area reserves system by the department of land and natural resources and twenty per cent of the funds shall be annually disbursed by the department, after joint consultation with the forest stewardship committee and the natural area reserves system commission in the following priority:

SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2001.