Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2002

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2232 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to ensure that unencumbered funds that were appropriated for infrastructure improvements at Kikala-Keokea on the island of Hawaii will not lapse at the end of the 2001-2002 fiscal year.

Your Committee finds that Act 144, Session Laws of Hawaii 2001, established and funded an infrastructure development fund, to be administered by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, for the completion of infrastructure at the Kikala-Keokea subdivision, subject to being matched dollar-for-dollar by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

However, all funding commitments to complete the design and construction of infrastructure improvements must be agreed upon in a Memorandum of Agreement between the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Department before any funds can be expended. The Department is still working on the Memorandum of Agreement with the Office of Hawaiian Affairs and the Attorney General to secure funding commitments and establish payment mechanisms to support this project.

Your Committee further finds that the language contained in Act 144 will not permit the expenditure of funds after June 30, 2002, if they were not encumbered by that date. To address this situation and to meet the Legislature’s intended work period through June 30, 2004, the Department has included a request in the LNR 101 (Public Lands Management) program area of the operating budget to extend the authorization for expenditure of the funds to June 30, 2003. If necessary, a similar request would be submitted next fiscal year to extend the authorization to June 30, 2004.

Your Committee supports providing funding for infrastructure improvements at the Kikala-Keokea subdivision either through the Executive Supplemental Budget as requested by the Governor or through the passage of this bill.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this bill by making 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. 2232, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2232, S.D. 1.