STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2805

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2955

S.D. 2

 

 

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 S.B. No. 2955, S.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 ensure that there is an adequate supply of emergency shelters in the State.

Specifically, the measure:

(1) Requires the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii to coordinate with the counties to develop a procedure to identify locations that could be used as temporary emergency shelters and appropriates funds to each county for this purpose;

(2) Requires, within six months of the effective date of the measure, that all health care facilities operating under a certificate of need and licensed or certified nursing homes file an emergency preparedness plan, which includes a retrofitting plan of its facilities, with the Department of Health;

(3) Requires, within twelve months of the effective date of the measure, that the Department of Health adopt rules to require that all hotels with more than nine rooming units file a disaster preparedness plan, which includes a retrofitting plan of its facilities, with the Department of Health within thirty days of the adoption of the Department of Health's disaster preparedness rule for hotels;

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

(5) 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 standards adopted pursuant to Act 5, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, and to identify Department of Education-controlled sites for new emergency shelters;

(6) 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 standards adopted pursuant to Act 5, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005; and

(7) Appropriates funds to construct new emergency shelters in the community.

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.

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) Deleting all the provisions of the measure, except for the provisions that:

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

(B) Require 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 standards adopted pursuant to Act 5, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, and to identify Department of Education-controlled sites for new emergency shelters; and

(C) Appropriate 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 standards adopted pursuant to Act 5, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, but designating the Department of Education as the expending agency;

(2) Adding provisions that:

(A) Require the Department of Accounting and General Services to adopt administrative rules to serve as a uniform standard of construction for state buildings;

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

(C) Require developers of existing residential developments to install siren warning systems;

(D) Require 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

(E) Provide an income tax credit for the installation of wind resistive devices;

(3) Adding standard provisions to the wind resistive devices tax credit; and

(4) Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

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 S.B. No. 2955, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2955, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair