Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2850 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to increase the mandatory minimum fines for littering violations, including littering from a motor vehicle, littering in public, and criminal littering.

Windward Ahupua'a Alliance submitted testimony in support of this measure. The Office of the Public Defender submitted testimony in opposition.

Your Committees find that there is a rampant littering problem in our State's communities. According to Windward Ahupua'a Alliance, in a recent roadway beautification project, its members collected over four thousand cigarette butts, fifteen hundred bottles and cans, and seventy large garbage bags full of garbage in a two-hour period. They also collected miscellaneous items such as tires, batteries, a washing machine, a golf cart, four computers, furniture, and construction material.

The current mandatory minimum fines for littering violations are not a sufficient deterrent. The present minimum fine for littering is only $25. An increase in the fine schedule is necessary to serve as an incentive to keep Hawaii beautiful.

Your Committees amended the measure by adding a savings clause and by making technical, non-substantive amendments for clarity and style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Energy, Environment, and International Affairs and Intergovernmental Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2850, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2850, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs.