STAND. COM. REP. 2816
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2004
RE: S.B. No. 2997
S.D. 2
Honorable Robert Bunda
President of the Senate
Twenty-Second State Legislature
Regular Session of 2004
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2997, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION'S ENGINEERING SCHOLARSHIP PROGRAM,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to allow the Department of Transportation to develop a civil engineering scholarship program.
Specifically, this measure establishes a program to award scholarships to students who agree by contract to apply for full-time civil service employment with the Department immediately after graduation from the University of Hawaii. Additionally, this measure appropriates $100,000 for the scholarship program's implementation.
Your Committee finds that, in recent years, the Department has experienced difficulty in recruiting qualified civil engineers, due in part to the limited enrollments in civil engineering at the University of Hawaii, and the disparity in salaries and benefits being offered by private sector and public sector employers.
By establishing a civil engineering scholarship program that will provide financial assistance and educational and employment opportunities in civil engineering to qualified Hawaii students, this measure promotes the civil engineering profession and enhances the recruitment of trained and qualified civil engineers by the Department of Transportation.
Your Committee has amended the measure by clarifying:
(1) The authority of the Department to award scholarships if the program is established;
(2) That the Department of Transportation shall include, in its guidelines for the scholarship program, alternate methods by which scholarship participants may work off their scholarship employment obligation if the department does not hire the participant; and
(3) That the amount of the tuition component of the scholarship shall be limited to the resident tuition cost of the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
In addition, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting the appropriation amount of $100,000 and leaving it blank and by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to promote further discussion and development on this measure. Technical, nonsubstantive amendments have also been made for the purposes of clarity and uniformity.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2997, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2997, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,
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____________________________ BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair |
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