STAND. COM. REP. NO. 725

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1526

       S.D. 2

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 S.B. No. 1526, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO JUDICIARY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to correct inadvertent errors that prevents the unitary salary commission from setting the salaries of the Administrative Director of the Courts and the Deputy Administrative Director.

     The Judiciary submitted comments in strong support of this measure.

     Your Committee finds that due to inadvertent statutory errors that are not resolvable in a timely manner, the unitary salary commission does not have the authority, as intended, to set the salaries of the Administrative Director of the Courts and the Deputy Administrative Director.

     This measure resolves this problem by linking the Administrative Director's salary to eighty per cent of the salary of the Chief Justice (whose salary is set by the unitary salary commission) and linking the Deputy Administrative Director's salary to ninety-five per cent of the salary of the Administrative Director.

     Your Committee further finds that linking the Administrative Director of the Court's salary to the salary of the Chief Justice is consistent with the salary link between the Governor and the Administrative Director of the State.

     Your Committee has amended the bill by:

(1)  Qualifying and prefacing the percentages of each salary with the phrase "not exceed" to provide flexibility in determining appropriate salaries for each position;

(2)  Changing the effective date to June 30, 2050 to facilitate further discussion on this matter; and

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

     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 S.B. No. 1526, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1526, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair