STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO.2720

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2002

RE: S.B. No. 2760

S.D. 2

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. 2760, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MARRIAGE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to streamline the process for registering and recording marriage events in Hawaii with the Department of Health.

Among other things, this measure:

(1) Increases the marriage license fee from $50 to $90, of which $10 is to be allocated to the vital statistics improvement special fund;

(2) Requires the counties to serve as agents for the Department of Health to grant marriage licenses;

(3) Deletes the requirement that applications for marriage licenses contain information consistent with the standard marriage certificate as recommended by the Public Health Service, National Center for Health Statistics;

(4) Requires applicants for marriage licenses to provide complete applications and such documentary requirements as prescribed by the Department by rule;

(5) Provides that all licenses to solemnize marriages issued pursuant to section 572-11, Hawaii Revised Statutes, shall automatically expire five years from the date of issuance, and makes license holders responsible for timely renewal;

(6) Imposes a $1 fee for an application for a license or renewal of a license to solemnize marriages; provided that one-half of the fee is to be deposited into the vital statistics improvement special fund and the other half into the state general fund;

(7) Provides that licenses to solemnize marriages issued before the effective date of this measure are void one hundred eighty days after that date;

(8) Requires the Department to make available to the public a listing of those to whom licenses to solemnize marriages have been issued; and

(9) Deletes the requirement that persons who performed a marriage ceremony report those ceremonies in the district in which the marriage takes place, and instead requires reports only to the Department.

Your Committee finds that this measure provides for a more efficient and convenient process for registering and recording marriage events occurring in the State with the Department of Health, and provides more effective oversight of those who solemnize marriages.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Deleting language requiring the counties to serve as agents for the Department of Health to grant marriage licenses;

(2) Increasing the marriage license fee from $50 to $60, instead of $90, of which $10 is to be allocated to the Hawaii birth defects special fund, rather than the vital statistics improvement special fund;

(3) Amending the effective date section to provide that section 1 of this bill (which increases the marriage license fee and allocates the $10 of additional revenue to the Hawaii birth defects special fund) shall take effect only if a bill establishing a Hawaii birth defects special fund in any form, whether in S.B. No. 2763 or in any other measure establishing such a fund, is passed by the Legislature in the 2002 Regular Session and becomes an Act; and

(4) 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. 2760, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2760, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

		____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair