STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1513

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 507

       H.D. 2

       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 Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 507, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BOATING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to prohibit the transfer of the management of the State's small boat harbors to the counties unless expressly provided by law.

     Your Committee received comments in support of this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO, the Hawaii Boaters Political Action Association, and two individuals.  The Department of Land and Natural Resources submitted comments in opposition to this measure and Paradise Cruises, Ltd. submitted comments.

     Your Committee notes that section 6, article V, of the state constitution provides in part that "All executive and administrative offices, departments, and instrumentalities of the state government and their respective powers and duties shall be allocated by law...", that is, by the legislative process.  Accordingly, any transfer of "respective powers and duties" between and among the various departments and instrumentalities of state government, including political subdivisions thereof, is a legislative function.  This would include any transfer of the jurisdiction, management, and operational control of the State's small boat harbors, which the legislature, by Act 272, Session Laws of Hawaii 1991, transferred from the Department of Transportation to the Department of Land and Natural Resources.  This measure expressly reaffirms that legislative allocation of responsibility.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Providing for the codification of this measure by including the contents preventing the Board of Land and Natural Resources from transferring the jurisdiction, management, or operations of the State's small boat harbors to another department or agency or to any county, except as expressly provided by law, in section 200-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

     (2)  Making format and technical nonsubstantive changes for purposes of clarity and consistency.

     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. 507, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 507, H.D. 2, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair