STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1483

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   S.B. No. 1154

      S.D. 2

      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 Higher Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 1154, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to provide more flexibility to the University of Hawaii (UH) in the financing and administering of the construction and maintenance of university projects, university systems, or networks.

     UH supported this bill with amendments.  The Department of Budget and Finance opposed this measure.  The Department of the Attorney General offered comments.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

     (1)  Maintaining the power of the UH Board of Regents (BOR) to construct and maintain university projects, including a university project included or to be in a university system;

     (2)  Authorizing the BOR to combine two or more, rather than one or more, university projects, university systems, or university projects and university systems into a network;

     (3)  Authorizing the BOR, with the approval of the Governor, to issue a total principal amount of no more than $100,000,000 in revenue bonds to finance the costs of construction or the costs of maintenance of any university project;

     (4)  Clarifying that the BOR is authorized to issue revenue bonds for the purpose of refunding revenue bonds;

     (5)  Requiring UH to submit an annual report to the Legislature, which should provide a summary of all revenue bonds issued during the preceding fiscal year; and

     (6)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Higher Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1154, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1154, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Higher Education,

____________________________

JERRY L. CHANG, Chair