Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing, to which was referred S.B. No. 801 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to repeal the Kalapana Disaster Relief Program.

The Department of Human Services testified in support of the measure. The County of Hawaii opposed the measure. The Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council submitted comments.

The Kalapana Disaster Relief Program was established in 1991 to provide low-interest acquisition, home construction, and mortgage loans to Kalapana residents who were dispossessed of their homes and land by the Kilauea eruptions. One mortgage loan was made under the program and this loan has since been paid off.

Therefore, this measure repeals the program.

Your Committee has amended this measure to include an appropriation of $350,000 for each year of the 2005-2007 fiscal biennium to the Kikala-Keokea Revolving Fund. The Fund was established in 2001 to provide low-interest home construction loans to displaced Kalapana residents with long-term leases on ceded lands in the Kikala-Keokea homestead area. Your Committee finds that this measure supports home ownership and preservation of native culture and rights.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 801, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 801, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.