STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1335

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1672

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1672 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LEGISLATIVE SERVICE AGENCIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to authorize increases to the salaries of legislative service agency deputies and first assistants.

     Specifically, the measure authorizes the increase of the maximum allowable salaries of the deputies and first assistants of the Offices of the Auditor, Ombudsman, and the Legislative Reference Bureau from eighty-seven to ninety-two per cent of the salaries of their respective agency heads.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Office of the Auditor, the Office of the Ombudsman, and the Legislative Reference Bureau.

     Your Committee finds that, generally, Act 225, Session Laws of Hawaii 2005 made the salaries of legislative agency heads comparable to executive department heads.  The salaries for deputies and first assistants, however, were not comparable, and the law allowed executive department deputies to command more pay than their legislative agency counterparts.

     This measure remedies this problem by providing equity to legislative agency deputies and first assistants by increasing their allowable salaries to equal those of their executive agency counterparts.  The measure will also assist legislative agencies with recruitment and job retention efforts and will more accurately compensate legislative agency deputies and first assistants for the duties and responsibilities that they perform.

     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 H.B. No. 1672, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair