STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1883

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

RE:   S.B. No. 1924

      S.D. 2

      H.D. 2

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred S.B. No. 1924, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LANDS CONTROLLED BY THE STATE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to require prior legislative approval of the sale in fee simple of public lands and other specified lands controlled by the state or federal government and provide a three-year exception for the sale of up to 15 acres of public land that is to be used to construct a qualified community center by a qualified eleemosynary organization, by direct negotiation and without public auction. 

     The Chair of the Makakilo/Kapolei/Honokai Hale Neighborhood Board No. 34, Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO, and several concerned individuals testified in support of this bill.  The Governor's Policy Office, DLNR, Department of Agriculture, and the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation opposed this measure.  The Department of the Attorney General, Department of Hawaiian Home Lands, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Hawaii Business Roundtable, and Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaii provided comments.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1)  Deleting the requirement for prior legislative approval for the sale in fee simple of public lands and other specified lands controlled by the state or federal government;

(2)  Inserting provisions authorizing the Board of Land and Natural Resources to exchange by direct negotiation and without public auction, up to 15 acres of public land as defined in Section 171-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that is to be used to construct a qualified community center by a qualified eleemosynary organization;

(3)  Providing that the authorization is for either a sale or an exchange, but not both;

(4)  Providing further that the authorization sunsets in three years;

(5)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2020, to encourage further discussion; and

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

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1924, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1924, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair