Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 733 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to permanently set the assessment rate for the Employment and Training Fund at .05% of what the employer pays for annual taxable wages.

Testimony in support of the measure was received from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, County of Maui's Office of Economic Development and numerous businesses and private citizens. The Hawaii Business League and the National Federation of Independent Business testified in opposition to the measure.

Your Committee finds that the Employment and Training Fund provides much needed funding for the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations' Workforce Development Division to assist numerous businesses and persons across the State with training and workforce development opportunities. Providing access to these opportunities benefits the State as a whole in its efforts to keep pace with the rapidly advancing global economy. Businesses can utilize the services of the Workforce Development Division to retrain or upgrade their employees' skills, thus making them more productive employees. Your Committee believes that fixing the assessment rate at .05% and making it permanent is a cost-effective means of benefiting not only employers and employees, but the entire State as well.

At the request of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, your Committee has amended the measure to take effect on January 1, 2002 rather than on July 1, 2001.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 733, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 733, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.