STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 442-04

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: H.B. No. 2765

H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Economic Development and Business Concerns, to which was referred H.B. No. 2765 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO CORPORATE ACCOUNTABILITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to establish safeguards to encourage corporate accountability and provide mechanisms to ensure efficient use of state funds given to corporations in the form of economic incentives.

The Hawaii State AFL-CIO and Hawaii Government Employees Association submitted testimony in support of this bill. The Department of Accounting and General Services and PacifiCap Group, LLC, opposed this bill. The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism (DBEDT) and Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR) submitted comments.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Removing provisions requiring DLIR to establish a whistleblowers hotline;

(2) Deleting the appropriation for the whistleblowers hotline

(3) Deleting the requirement that DBEDT prepare a cost-benefit analysis of state expenditures with economic development implications;

(4) Making an exception to the wage and benefit analysis rules; and

(5) Making technical, nonsubstantive changes for purposes of style and clarity.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development and Business Concerns that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2765, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2765, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development and Business Concerns,

		____________________________ BRIAN SCHATZ, Chair