HB1156 SD1 SSCR1462

STAND. COM. REP. NO.1462

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 1156

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1156, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE HAWAII HURRICANE RELIEF FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make a variety of modifications to the Hawaii hurricane relief fund law.

Specifically, this bill:

(1) Prevents the dissolution of the Hawaii hurricane relief fund except upon the repeal of the statutes creating the fund;

(2) Requires the Hawaii hurricane relief fund to accumulate sufficient reserves in the fund to settle claims from a covered event;

(3) Uses the investment income from the fund to provide homeowners and small businesses with matching grants for the installation of wind damage mitigation devices, for reinvestment in the fund, and for deposit into the general fund;

(4) Redirects the moneys in the hurricane reserve trust fund to an unspecified fund and for an unspecified purpose in lieu of a law directing a reversion to the general fund; and

(5) Appropriates funds from the hurricane reserve trust fund for the hazard mitigation grant program.

Your Committee finds that present law allows for the administrative dissolution of the Hawaii hurricane relief fund followed by the reversion of accumulated moneys into the general fund. Your Committee believes that regardless of the return of insurers into the hurricane insurance market, it is prudent to retain the fund as a security measure for the future. Furthermore, your Committee believes that a simple reversion of moneys to the general fund upon the dissolution of the fund diverts the moneys away from the uses for which the moneys were originally collected.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1156, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

		____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair