Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1155, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to allow certain trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) to make a lump sum contribution payment to the Employees Retirement System (ERS) to acquire credit for prior service.

OHA submitted testimony in support of this bill. ERS submitted testimony in opposition to this bill.

Your Committee finds that this bill will rectify an oversight in legislation from 2002 that intended to extend the same retirement benefits to OHA trustees that are afforded to other elected salaried officials. Certain OHA trustees are unable, under current law, to pay for past service credit through a lump sum contribution. This bill will remedy this problem and ensure consistency in the retirement benefits extended to OHA trustees.

Your Committee further notes that this bill is not intended to set a precedent for other contributory ERS members, and should be construed only to rectify the inconsistency in previous legislation. Your Committee also finds that the purposes of this bill might be better effected through temporary language rather than through codification into statute. Accordingly, the Committee on Judiciary is respectfully urged to coordinate with the Attorney General's office to draft language allowing the provisions of this bill to be effective only for a certain period of time sufficient to allow affected OHA trustees to make the necessary contributions to ERS.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land Use, and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1155, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Labor and Public Employment.