Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 1129 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to modify the benefits available to homeowners under the Loss Mitigation Grant Program and to appropriate moneys for the program.

The Department of Defense and an individual testified in support of this measure. The Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs (DCCA) opposed the measure.

The State's Loss Mitigation Grant Program authorizes the provision of grants of up to $2,100 per dwelling, to reimburse homeowners who install wind resistive devices in their single or multi-family residential dwellings to mitigate against potential hurricane damage. Currently, the reimbursement amount is equal to fifty per cent of the costs incurred in purchasing and installing a device and for a required inspection of the installation.

This measure reduces the reimbursable portion of the costs from fifty per cent to thirty-five per cent and repeals the authorization for reimbursement of inspection costs. Additionally, this measure appropriates $1,000,000 in general funds for the program.

Your Committee finds that modification of the parameters of the grant program will allow for the maximization of program funds and enable more homeowners to participate in the program. Your Committee further finds that by assisting homeowners to retrofit their homes to withstand the effects of a hurricane, this measure may help to reduce the number of persons potentially seeking refuge from a hurricane in public shelters, of which there is currently a shortage.

Your Committee has amended this measure to identify DCCA as the expending agency for the moneys appropriated, rather than the Insurance Commissioner, and by making a technical amendment for the purpose of style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1129, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1129, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.