Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Intergovernmental Affairs and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2433 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds for a grant-in-aid to the Prosecuting Attorney's Office in each county for the career prosecution units and the victim witness assistance programs.

The City and County of Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, the City and County of Honolulu Police Department, the Hawaii County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, the Kauai County Office of the Prosecuting Attorney, the Kauai County Victim/ Witness Program Director, the Maui County Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, the Maui County Victim/Witness Assistance Division, the Crime Victim Compensation Commission, the Immigrant Rights and Public Interest Legal Center, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving submitted testimony in support of this measure.

Your Committees find that continued funding for the Career Criminal Prosecution and Victim Witness Assistance programs is necessary given their critical role in the prosecution of chronic offenders and in providing services to the victims and witnesses of crimes committed in Hawaii, respectively. State funding for these programs has been cut dramatically over the years. For instance, the City and County of Honolulu Department of the Prosecuting Attorney testified that since 1995, state funding for its Victim/Witness Assistance program has been cut thirty per cent and funding for its Career Criminal Prosecution Unit was cut fifty per cent. The Office of the Prosecuting Attorney for the remaining counties submitted similar testimony.

Upon further consideration, your Committees amended this measure by:

Your Committees respectfully request that the Committee on Ways and Means restore all of the appropriation amounts to the respective 1995 funding levels for each county.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Intergovernmental Affairs and Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2433, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2433, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.