STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1087

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 402

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 402, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE LAND CONSERVATION FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to authorize the use of the Land Conservation Fund for the acquisition of agricultural easements and for the payment of debt service on bonds issued for acquisitions using the fund.

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the Department of Agriculture, the Hawaii Agriculture Research Center, and the Trust for Public Land.

     Your Committee finds that this measure broadens the public purposes for which the Land Conservation Fund can be used and includes agricultural easements as an appropriate means to acquire interests in or rights to agricultural land.  Allowing the purchase of agricultural conservation easements is a tool that may encourage more landowners to consider this program and keep important agricultural lands in production, rather than allowing them to be converted to suburban or high density areas.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Deleting the language under section 1 of this measure and adopting language under section 1 of S.B. No. 1094 that further clarifies that the fund shall be used for the acquisition of interests or rights in land having value as a resource to the State through the establishment of agricultural easements; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 402, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 402, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water, Land, Agriculture, and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

RUSSELL S. KOKUBUN, Chair