Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 1256 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to extend the Board of Agriculture's deadline to submit the Agricultural Water Use Development Plan to the Legislature from twenty days prior to the convening of the 2002 Regular Session, to twenty days prior to the convening of the 2004 Regular Session.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Board of Agriculture, Maui County Farm Bureau, Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, and Pineapple Growers Association of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that in 1998, when the Department of Agriculture was directed to develop the Agricultural Water Use Development Plan, no funds were appropriated for its development. The Legislature appropriated $300,000 for fiscal year 2002-2003 to match a federal grant from the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Reclamation. A combination of state funds and the federal grant are now being used to begin the plan. Adequate funding will allow the completion of this plan by 2004.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1256 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.