Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 3206 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to eradicate the coqui frog on Maui.

Life of the Land, Hawaii Audubon Society, and the board of directors and owners at Kihei Akahi submitted testimony supporting the measure. The Chairperson of the Board of Agriculture submitted testimony supporting the intent of the measure. The Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources submitted testimony opposing the measure. The Nature Conservancy submitted comments on the measure.

Your Committee finds that the coqui frog poses a particularly troublesome problem on Maui and is in need of immediate eradication. Your Committee noted the concerns of some testifiers that the funds allocated by this measure may be diverted to other budgetary priorities if a specific entity is not identified to carry out the intended purpose of the measure.

Accordingly, your Committee amended the measure by replacing the Department of Health with the County of Maui as the expending agency and specifying that the funds be used by the Maui Invasive Species Council to eradicate the coqui frog on Maui.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3206, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3206, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.