Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Tourism & Culture, to which was referred H.B. No. 1390 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to sustain and develop vital community programming in culture, the arts, history, and the humanities by appropriating $2,000,000 for fiscal year 2005-2006, and $2,081,939 for fiscal year 2006-2007, to support the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts' (HSFCA) Biennium Grants Program (Grants Program).

Volcano Art Center, Hawaii United Okinawa Association, Douglas Trade Shows, Manoa, East Hawaii Cultural Center, Honolulu Theatre for Youth, Hawaii Consortium for the Arts, Honolulu Academy of Arts, Hawaii Alliance for Arts Education, and several concerned citizens supported this bill. The HSFCA and Department of Accounting and General Services offered comments.

Your Committee notes that the Grants Program is the largest source of public funding for arts programming in the state. However, funding for the Grants Program has diminished over the years, thus lessening HSFCA's ability to support organizations statewide to present arts and cultural programming in their communities. Your Committee believes that the appropriations contained in this bill are important to restore the effectiveness and scope of the Grants Program.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Tourism & Culture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1390 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.