Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Labor and Public Employment, to which was referred H.B. No. 21, H.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to ensure that the State's economic development resources are achieving their desired effect of raising living standards for working families by gathering and analyzing additional information and establishing safeguards in development assistance.

This bill requires:

(3) The disclosure of development assistance; and

ILWU Local 42 supported this bill.

Tax incentives and development assistance are useful tools in attracting industries to help improve the standard of living in targeted communities. Your Committee concurs that it is important to collect and analyze data to determine if these government incentives are achieving their desired effect of raising the living standard for working families. Moreover, your Committee finds that government should recapture tax revenues lost when those industries, that take advantage of these incentives, do not provide the benefits they promised to the community.

In closer inspection of the bill, your Committee notes that the bill may have some potential technical problems including the narrowness of its title. There is also concerns about the possibility of an unfunded mandate falling upon the shoulders of the counties.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance to take a close look at the bill title issue and if it concurs that the title is too narrow, to find another vehicle with an appropriate title to further discussion and deliberation on the important concepts advanced in this bill.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor and Public Employment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 21, H.D. 1, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Finance.