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 S.B. No. 1356, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for infrastructure for Maunalaha subdivision on Oahu.

Many families of Hawaiian ancestry have lived in Maunalaha since the Great Mahele. The land is owned by the State, and in 1983, the Department of Land and Natural Resources offered long-term residential leases to residents who met specific criteria. At that time only thirty leases were executed, and only a few lessees have been able to construct new homes. The remaining lessees live in substandard housing and have been unable to upgrade their homes as they cannot qualify for loans since the infrastructure is substandard and they do not own the land.

The purpose of this bill is to provide funds for necessary infrastructure improvements to allow Maunalaha to meet health and safety standards. Your Committee finds that the State, as lessor, has a duty to the lessees to ensure that the infrastructure meets these basic standards. Your Committee is also aware that the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has voted to commit matching funds for Maunalaha infrastructure.

Your Committee has amended this bill by changing the appropriation to $1 and specifying that the infrastructure upgrades include roadways. Your Committee has also made technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

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 S.B. No. 1356, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1356, S.D. 2.