STAND. COM. REP. NO.  341

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   H.B. No. 312

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Economic Development & Business Concerns, to which was referred H.B. No. 312 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to fund the Hawaii Community-Based Economic Development Program to provide assistance to community based businesses.

     Supporting testimony was submitted by:  the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; a member of the Hawaii Community-Based Economic Development Program Advisory Committee; the Maui County Office of Economic Development; the Kaua‘i Economic Development Board, Inc.; the Kaua‘i Community College; the Hawai‘i Alliance for Community-Based Economic Development; the Small Business Development Network, Kaua‘i and Maui Centers; the Kona Pacific Farmers Cooperative; and The Arc of Kauai for Children and Adults with Disabilities.

     Your Committee finds that community-based businesses require a functional, service-oriented agency that can provide general support, such as business counseling and consulting, and that, particularly, can provide financial support for community-based economic development.  The Hawaii Community-Based Economic Development Program, established by Act 111, Session Laws of Hawaii 1990, provides essential support to communities to achieve self-reliance and sustainability through economic development.  Besides business counseling and consulting, the program offers seeding and matching grants to community-based for-profit and nonprofit companies alike, thus fostering new start-ups, encouraging entrepreneurship, and building capacity and creating sustainable jobs.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Redirecting the general fund appropriation in section 2 of the bill to be deposited into the community-based economic development revolving fund;

     (2)  Adding a new section 3 appropriating the funds out of the community-based economic development revolving fund for the community-based economic development program;

     (3)  Renumbering the remaining sections consecutively; and

     (4)  Changing its effective date from July 1, 2007, to July 1, 2034, to facilitate further discussion of the measure.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development & Business Concerns that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 312, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 312, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development & Business Concerns,

____________________________

KYLE T. YAMASHITA, Chair