Report Title:
Harbors; Special Facilities Lease; Special Facilities Revenue Bond
Description:
Directs DOT to enter into a special facilities lease with Horizon Lines and issue special facilities revenue bonds to assist Horizon Lines in constructing and equipping new facilities at the Kapalama Military Reservation.
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HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES |
H.B. NO. |
2160 |
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TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to harbors.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. In its May 1997, Oahu commercial harbors 2020 plan, the department of transportation estimates that eighty per cent of everything used or consumed in the State is imported and that over ninety-eight per cent of these imported goods are shipped by sea entering the State through our commercial harbors.
The American Association of Port Authorities ranks Honolulu as the tenth busiest of all seventy-five North American container ports; however, in a study of thirteen of these comparable ports, Honolulu harbor's cargo acreage places in the lower thirty-one per cent of the ports studied, thereby constraining Honolulu's cargo handling efficiencies by a lack of space.
In the 2020 plan, the department of transportation states that Hawaii's life-sustaining cargo operations and ocean cargo carriers must be given first priority in the development of new facilities to ensure safe, secure, and efficient harbor cargo operations. One of the recommendations of the 2020 plan is to expand container operations to the Kapalama military reservation.
Horizon Lines is the largest domestic container shipping company, operating sixteen United States-flagged vessels on routes linking the continental United States with Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, and Puerto Rico. Horizon Lines currently is the second largest container cargo operator in the State, after Matson Navigation with whom it shares a cramped container yard on Sand island.
Horizon Lines is eager to extend its commitment to the State with its willingness to invest in a large, new, and modern container cargo facility at the Kapalama military reservation. To ensure and encourage this large investment in a badly needed harbor facility, the execution of a special facility lease with Horizon Lines and the issuance of special facility revenue bonds by the department of transportation to develop, furnish, and equip this special facility should be expedited.
The legislature further finds that:
(1) The special facility that is the subject of this special facility lease will not be used to provide services, commodities, supplies, or facilities that are already adequately being made available through the harbors system of the State;
(2) The use or occupancy of the special facility under this special facility lease will not result in a reduction of the revenues derived from the harbors system to an amount below the amount required to be derived therefrom by section 39-61, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and
(3) Entering into this special facility lease will not violate or result in the breach of any covenant contained in any resolution or certificate authorizing any bonds of the State or department of transportation now outstanding.
The purpose of this Act is to direct the department of transportation to:
(1) Enter into negotiations with Horizon Lines for a special facility lease of land at the Kapalama military reservation for a new container yard; and
(2) Authorize the issuance of special facility revenue bonds for the development and equipping of a new container cargo facility at the Kapalama military reservation.
SECTION 2. The provisions of part II, chapter 266, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to the contrary notwithstanding, the department of transportation is directed to:
(1) Without public bid, immediately enter into negotiations with Horizon Lines for a special facility lease to allow for the development, furnishing, and equipping of a special facility to be used solely by Horizon Lines, to include a new, state-of-the-art modern maritime container cargo facility at the Kapalama military reservation; and
(2) Upon the entering into a special facility lease with Horizon Lines, issue special facility revenue bonds in such principal amounts as may be necessary to yield the amount of the cost of the construction, furnishing, and equipping of the special facility; provided that the total principal amount of the special facility revenue bonds that are issued pursuant to this Act shall not exceed $100,000,000.
To the extent that the provisions of part II, chapter 266, Hawaii Revised Statutes, are not in conflict with this section, they shall remain in full force and effect.
SECTION 3. The director of transportation is directed to report on the progress and status of the special facility lease with Horizon Lines and the issuance of the special facility revenue bonds to the legislature twenty days before the convening of the regular session 2007.
SECTION 4. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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