Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred H.B. No. 1666, H.D. 2, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to establish the school-level minor repairs and maintenance special fund to provide moneys for school-level minor repairs and maintenance accounts, and allow an individual whose state income tax refund for any taxable year is $2 or more to designate $2 of the same to be paid over to the special fund.

Your Committee heard testimony in support of the measure from the Lieutenant Governor, Department of Education, Department of Accounting and General Services, Hawaii State Teachers Association, and General Contractors Association of Hawaii. Your Committee heard testimony in opposition to the measure from the Department of Budget and Finance, and Department of Taxation. Technical comments were provided by the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that the repair and maintenance backlog for the public schools of Hawaii is in excess of $600 million. Public resources alone cannot solve a problem of this magnitude. Therefore, creative solutions that encourage private contributions, such as those proposed in this measure, are critically necessary.

Your Committee has made technical, nonsubstantive changes for clarity and to comport with preferred drafting style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1666, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1666, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.