STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1585

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1897

S.D. 2

H.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred S.B. No. 1897, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LAND CONSERVATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to provide funding for land conservation efforts by, among other things:

(1) Renaming the fund established under section 173A-5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, as the "Land Conservation Fund" (Fund) and dedicating 25 percent of the annual proceeds from the conveyance tax to the Fund;

(2) Exempting the Fund from the five percent fee collected from special funds for government central service expenses;

(3) Amending the definition of "land having value as a resource to the State" to include land having cultural or agricultural production value;

(4) Allowing grants from the Fund to be made to state agencies, counties, and nonprofit land conservation organizations to acquire interests or rights in land having value as a State resource, in fee title or through permanent conservation easements;

(5) Requiring matching funds of at least 25 percent of the total project costs for grants from the Fund made to a county agency or nonprofit land conservation organization; and

(6) Appropriating for fiscal year 2005-2006, funds to secure matching federal funding for land conservation efforts in Honu'apo Estuary lands in Ka'u and Moanalua Valley on Oahu, and to purchase agriculture easements to protect farm and ranch lands statewide.

The mayors of the counties of Hawaii and Maui, two members of the Hawaii County Council, two members of the Maui County Council, County of Kauai Planning Department, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Big Island Farm Bureau, Sierra Club-Hawaii Chapter, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc., Maui Coastal Land Trust, Ko'olau Mountains Watershed Partnership, Enterprise Honolulu, The League of Women Voters of Hawaii, The Trust for Public Land, Kauai Public Land Trust, Kona Land Trust, Hawaii Forest Industry Association, Peoples Advocacy for Trails, Na Leo Pohai, Malama Maha'ulepu, Kauai Public Access, Open Space, and Natural Resources Preservation Fund Commission, North Shore Community Land Trust, Kohanaiki Ohana, Hawaii Invasive Species Management & Education Corporation, Conservation Council for Hawaii, Kahea-The Hawaiian-Environmental Alliance, Moanalua Gardens Foundation, Rocky Mountain Institute, Livable Hawaii Kai Hui, and numerous concerned individuals testified in support of this bill. The Department of Land and Natural Resources and American Farmland Trust supported the intent of this measure. The Department of Taxation opposed this bill. The Department of Agriculture, Tax Foundation of Hawaii, and Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii offered comments.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Specifying that the appropriations made under this measure for land conservation efforts in Honu'apo Estuary in Ka'u are to be used for the purchase of more than 153 acres of land in that area; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity and style.

 

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1897, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1897, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

 

____________________________

DWIGHT TAKAMINE, Chair