Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 3147 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to make an appropriation for the purchase of Waimea Valley on the island of Oahu.

Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, one member of the Honolulu City Council, the Conservation Council of Hawaii, the Sierra Club, and three individuals. Testimony in opposition to this measure was submitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee finds that Waimea Valley is one of the few remaining intact ahapua'a on the island of Oahu and remains a rich and sacred cultural, historic, and aesthetic resource for the entire State. Thus, this measure appropriates money to contribute toward the State's share for the purchase of Waimea Valley.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making the effective date retroactive to July 1, 2005 to ensure that funding will be available for the 2005-2006 fiscal year.

Your Committee notes that the State is not the sole purchaser of the valley. Rather a consortium of the following participants will provide funding to purchase the valley: the United States Army, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the City and County of Honolulu, and the National Audubon Society.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, and Agriculture that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3147, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3147, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.