STAND

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 295

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 982

S.D. 1

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing and Transportation and Government Operations, to which was referred S.B. No. 982 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SHELTERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate moneys to retrofit public buildings for the purpose of increasing the number of emergency public shelters.

The Department of Defense (DOD), Hawaii Hurricane Relief Fund (HHRF), Structural Engineers Association of Hawaii, and an individual testified in support of this measure.

Your Committees find that currently the State has an emergency shelter shortfall of 124,000 spaces. The funds appropriated under this measure would help to reduce this shortage by enabling the DOD to retrofit buildings at thirty-two facilities throughout the State, including twenty-nine schools and three community centers.

Your Committees have amended this measure:

(1) By deleting the appropriation from the HHRF to the General Fund since interest income from the Hurricane Reserve Trust Fund is already transferred and deposited into the General Fund;

(2) To require that buildings designated to be retrofitted are accessible to the general public; and

(3) By making a technical amendment for the purpose of style.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing and Transportation and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 982, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 982, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Commerce, Consumer Protection, and Housing and Transportation and Government Operations,

____________________________ LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair		____________________________ RON MENOR, Chair