STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3536

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2183

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2183, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EMERGENCY SHELTERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds to fund retrofitting of public school buildings to enable them to be used as emergency shelters.

Your Committee finds that the supply of emergency shelters is woefully and dangerously inadequate. Emergency shelters can make the difference between life or death in a disaster, as was demonstrated in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina.

However, your Committee believes that the measure, as received by your Committee, falls short of adequately planning for the future occurrence of natural disasters. Your Committee believes that a more comprehensive and coordinated approach should be taken to harden state-controlled facilities. Consequently, your Committee has amended the measure by deleting the substantive contents of the measure and inserting therefor an amended version of S.B. No. 2955, S.D. 2, that:

(1) Adds a new chapter in the Hawaii Revised Statutes that establishes a state building code council to formulate and periodically update statewide model building codes and design standards;

(2) Appropriates funds for the state building code council;

(3) Provides that the state building code serve as a standard of construction for all building construction, including state buildings;

(4) Requires developers of new residential developments to design and construct community facilities to meet hurricane resistant criteria and to install siren warning systems;

(5) Requires developers of existing residential developments to install siren warning systems;

(6) Authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds to fund retrofitting of public school buildings to enable them to be used as emergency shelters;

(7) Requires the Departments of Education and Defense to jointly determine which Department of Education-controlled structures that are currently being identified as emergency shelters are not in compliance with the Department of Defense's emergency shelter design criteria adopted pursuant to Act 5, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, and to identify Department of Education-controlled sites for new emergency shelters;

(8) Appropriates funds to retrofit Department of Education-controlled facilities that are identified as emergency shelters to comply with the Department of Defense's emergency shelter design criteria adopted pursuant to Act 5, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, but designates the Department of Education as the expending agency;

(9) Requires that the first $2,000,000 of the annual net investment income earned from the principal in the Hurricane Reserve Trust Fund, in fiscal years 2006-2007 and 2007-2008, be deposited to the credit of the Loss Mitigation Grant Fund under section 431:22-102, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

(10) Provides an income tax credit for the installation of wind resistive devices.

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 H.B. No. 2183, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2183, H.D. 1, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair