STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3049

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 2531

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Tourism and Government Operations, to which was referred H.B. No. 2531, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE WEST MAUI TRANSPORTATION ACCESS PLAN,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to require the Maui Civil Defense Agency to develop, with the assistance of a temporary working group, a West Maui transportation access plan, which can serve as a model for developing plans in other areas having similar problems, such as West Kaua‘i, Wainee, and the Kealakekua area.

     Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Department of Transportation and Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc.  The State Procurement Office submitted comments.

     Your Committees find that the State has no coordinated plan to transport people into and out of West Maui during non-emergency road closures.  Because there is no hospital in West Maui, such road closures put peoples' lives at risk.  They also divide families, as many Maui residents work in West Maui but reside in other parts of Maui County, and the booming visitor industry in West Maui is also jeopardized.

     Your Committee on Transportation previously heard and approved a comparable measure, S.B. No. 2156, S.D. No. 1.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by deleting its content and replacing it with the content of S.B. No. 2156, S.D. 1.  As amended, this measure:

     (1)  Authorizes the Department of Transportation, rather than the Maui Civil Defense Agency, to convene the working group and develop the plan, and appropriates funds to the Department of Transportation;

     (2)  Terminates the temporary working group on June 30, 2009;

     (3)  Changes the effective date from July 1, 2008, to July 1, 2050; and

     (4)  Makes technical, nonsubstantive amendments to reflect the change in the convening agency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Tourism and Government Operations that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2531, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2531, 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 Committees on Transportation and International Affairs and Tourism and Government Operations,

____________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair

____________________________ J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair