STAND. COM. REP. NO.1100
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2003
RE: H.B. No. 507
H.D. 3
S.D. 1
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2003
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred H.B. No. 507, H.D. 3, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMERGENCY MEDICAL TECHNICIANS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to allow licensed emergency medical technicians to retire without penalty after accruing twenty-five years of credited service.
The City Council for the City and County of Honolulu submitted a Resolution wherein the City Council expressed its support for the measure. The Department of Health, the Director and Deputy Director of the Honolulu Emergency Services Department for the City and County of Honolulu, the Prehospital Emergency Care Professionals Association, and forty emergency medical technicians submitted testimony in support of this measure.
The Department of Budget and Finance submitted testimony in opposition to this measure, and the Employees' Retirement System submitted comments on the measure with recommendations for amendments.
Your Committee finds that Emergency Medical Technicians are public safety personnel who perform hazardous, stressful, and physically demanding duties, yet are ineligible to retire after twenty-five years of service without penalty, regardless of age upon retirement, as are their public safety personnel counterparts. Your Committee also finds that a shortage of Emergency Medical Technicians exists within the State and that efforts must be made to equitably compensate, retain, and recruit qualified individuals. These efforts should include an increase of benefits, such as reducing the number of years required for retirement eligibility.
However, your Committee determines that difficult economic times are upon us and fiscal responsibility continues to remain a priority. Additionally, the concern has been raised that a mass exodus of Emergency Medical Technicians will occur if eligibility requirements for retirement are reduced, thereby crippling emergency services available within the State. Therefore, your Committee believes that a graduated scheduled to phase-in the allowance for Emergency Medical Technicians to retire after twenty-five years of credited service will best serve the needs and requests of the Emergency Medical Technicians, ensure against a mass exodus, and minimize the fiscal impact associated with this change.
Your Committee has amended this measure as follows:
(1) By creating a new section in chapter 88, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to allow licensed Emergency Medical Technicians to retire without penalty upon accruing thirty years of credited service through June 30, 2003; twenty-nine years of credited service on or after July 1, 2004; twenty-eight years of credited service on or after July 1, 2005; twenty-seven years of credited service on or after July 1, 2006; twenty-six years of credited service on or after July 1, 2007; and twenty-five years of credited service on or after July 1, 2008, as an Emergency Medical Technician, if the last five or more years prior to retirement are credited service in that capacity;
(2) By deleting the amendment to section 88-74, Hawaii Revised Statutes, which allowed Emergency Medical Technicians to retire after twenty-five years of credited service in such capacity; and
(3) By changing the effective date in the measure to make the Act effective upon approval.
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 H.B. No. 507, H.D. 3, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 507, H.D. 3, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor,
|
____________________________ BRIAN KANNO, Chair |
||