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. 704 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to make permanent the law repealing the cap on the use of the crime victim compensation special fund (fund) for operating expenses and salaries and expanding its use to the collection of fees.

Your Committee finds that section 4 of Act 278, Session Laws of Hawaii 1999, which amended section 351-62.5(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes, temporarily repealed the requirement that not more than thirty per cent of funds deposited into the fund be used for operating expenses and salaries. The amendments in section 4 also authorized use of the fund for collection of fees. However, language in section 7 of Act 278, could in fact repeal, effective July 1, 2001, all of section 351-62.5(d), as opposed to sunsetting only the amendments made to it by Section 4 of Act 278. This bill deletes the repeal date in section 7 of Act 278, thereby making permanent the repeal of the restriction on the use of the funds and eliminating any possibility of the inadvertent and unintended repeal of section 351-62.5(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee finds that the fund, previously known as the criminal injuries compensation fund, is funded by proceeds from the five to twenty per cent of inmate wages under the prison industries program, lawsuits brought by the crime victims compensation commission for damages against the offender, compensation fees assessed by the court against the defendant, and court ordered restitution. Your Committee further finds that the Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission performs an important public service by providing a financial and psychological safety net for victims of violent crime. When insurance and other payment sources have been exhausted, the Commission provides compensation to or on behalf of Hawaii's violent crime victims or their surviving family members. Your Committee recognizes that reinstituting the thirty per cent cap will reduce staffing of the Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission by at least fifty per cent, which would severely limit its ability to properly administer compensation awards to crime victims and surviving family members.

Your Committee has before it several other bills relating to victim compensation and the Criminal Injuries Compensation Commission. Therefore, in an attempt to simplify matters, your Committee has consolidated these bills into one unified bill.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this bill by:

Your Committee finds that the provisions of S.B. No. 1186, which involve a technical amendment to clarify the reenactment provisions of the amendments in Act 278, Session Laws of Hawaii 1999, to the crime victim compensation special fund, are unnecessary, because they are subsumed within the broader scope of the other amendments proposed in this bill.

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. 704, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 704, S.D. 1.