STAND. COM. REP. NO.561
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2001
RE: S.B. No. 493
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 Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 493 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to establish the Hawaii school repair and maintenance trust fund as a separate fund of Hawaii 3R's, a nonprofit corporation, for the coordination of private and federal efforts to repair and maintain public schools. Under this program, certain professionals that donate their services would be eligible for a tax credit.
Your Committee heard testimony in support of the measure from United States Pacific Command, United States Senator Daniel Inouye, Department of Education, Department of Accounting and General Services, State Procurement Office, Kauai Economic Development Board, Kauai Chamber of Commerce, Hawaii Island Economic Development Board, International Longshoreman and Workers Union, United Public Workers, Hawaii Business Roundtable, KMS Sales, Trex Enterprises, King Auto Center, Textron Systems Kauai, Oshima, Chun, Fong and Chung, Attorneys at Law, Honolulu District Student Council, two individuals from Helping Hands Hawaii, five individuals from America's Promise Hawaii, Kailua Elementary School PTSA, four teachers from Moanalua Middle School, eleven individuals associated with Roosevelt High School (including the principal and other staff members, student government officers, and parents and officers of the PTSA and Roughriders Battalion Boosters), and five private individuals. Your Committee also heard testimony in opposition to the measure from the Department of Taxation, Department of Budget and Finance, and an individual.
Your Committee finds that the $640,000,000 backlog in the repair and maintenance of our public schools requires bold and innovative solutions that leverage scarce State resources with synergistic public-private partnerships.
Your Committee has amended the measure by:
(1) Specifying in the purpose section that the public-private partnership is to be placed within the Department of Accounting and General Services and those licensed occupations eligible for the tax credit;
(2) Deleting all references relevant to the State as the procurement agency and a provision that would have given state contract bidding preferences to participating professionals who donated their services;
(3) Specifying a limit on the tax credit was at ten percent of the value of donated professional services up to a maximum of $40,000; and
(4) Inserting a program appropriation of $5,000,000 and $41,772 for a coordinating staff position at the Department of Accounting and General Services for 2001-2002.
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 S.B. No. 493, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 493, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Education,
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____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair |
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