Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 425, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to entitle the surviving spouse or similarly situated person of a deceased member of the Employees' Retirement System to continue receiving benefits subsequent to the spouse's remarriage or entry into a new reciprocal beneficiary relationship.

Your Committee finds that under the present law benefits are terminated once the surviving spouse remarries or enters into a new reciprocal beneficiary relationship. The present law therefore creates economic disincentives for a surviving spouse to remarry or enter into a similar personal bond and regain a normal lifestyle. Your Committee accordingly finds that such a law tends to reflect a public policy that the State disfavors remarriages by surviving spouses of state employees.

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. 425, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.