STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 67-04

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: H.B. No. 2345

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture, to which was referred H.B. No. 2345 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL LANDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to fulfill a constitutional mandate that public lands be used for development of farm and home ownership as provided by law to ensure long-term productive use of certain lands by revising the provisions that significantly impair the transfer of agricultural lands from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to the Department of Agriculture.

Under the amendments made by this bill:

(1) Chapter 166E no longer requires that all transferred lands be geographically adjacent; and

(2) The limitations on encumbered lands, including all legal conveyances of real property including leases, licenses, and revocable permits, have been clarified.

The Board of Agriculture submitted testimony in support of this measure.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2345 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture,

		____________________________ FELIPE P. ABINSAY, JR., Chair