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. 550 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to strengthen the State's agricultural theft laws.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Forest Industry Association, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Pineapple Growers Association of Hawaii, and the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center. Testimony in support, but with requests for amendments, was submitted by the Board of Agriculture.

Specifically, the measure includes "silvicultural products" in the definition of "agricultural products", to remove the monetary value and weight requirements needed to trigger the showing of a certification of ownership for the sale or resale of agricultural products, and to allow the Department of Agriculture to deputize persons to assist with the investigation and enforcement of this law.

Your Committee finds that this measure will be a great help in preventing agricultural theft in many areas, and will provide coverage for an important sector of the agricultural industry: the silviculture industry. By removing the minimum value from the requirement for proof of ownership, a loophole is closed.

Your Committee also finds that the Department of Agriculture's suggested amendments to the measure would make the law easier to enforce. Based on the Department of Agriculture's testimony, your Committee has amended the measure to authorize "any other person" instead of deputizing persons to investigate and enforce. This removes the implication of more authority than the department is capable of providing.

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. 550, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 550, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing.