Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 860, H.D. 1, entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow veterans who are members of the Employees' Retirement System to receive credit for military service regardless of when they retired.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Veterans' Services, United Public Workers, AFSCME, Local 646, AFL-CIO, Hawaii Government Employees Association, and six members of the Maui Retired State and County World War II and Korean War Veterans. Your Committees also heard oral testimony in support of this measure from another concerned veteran. The Department of Budget and Finance submitted testimony in opposition to this measure, and the Employees' Retirement System provided comments.

Your Committees find that the brave men and women who served our country in the armed forces deserve our utmost respect and honor. Without their valiant efforts, civilians would not enjoy many of the freedoms that have become part of our everyday lives.

Your Committees find that under section 88-132.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as enacted in 1989, civil servants who retired after July 1, 1989, have been eligible to receive military service credit to increase their monthly pension payments.

Your Committees find that there is no reason to deny military service credit to veterans who retired from state service prior to 1989, and therefore support the intent of this measure.

Your Committees amended this measure to make it effective upon approval rather than in the year 2020; the appropriation section shall take effect on July 1, 2001. Also, your Committees amended this measure to provide that the increase in pension or retirement payments shall begin on July 1, 2001, rather than in 2002. These brave veterans have waited long enough for their benefits, and your Committees believe that they should be forced to wait no longer.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation, Military Affairs and Government Operations and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 860, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 860, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.