STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2605

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2555

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2555, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to establish a Department of Planning and Sustainability.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, the Department of Land and Natural Resources, and the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii.  The Hawaii Community Development Authority and Castle and Cooke submitted comments on the measure.

     Your Committee finds that Act 8, Special Session Laws of Hawaii 2005, created the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Task Force which produced the Hawaii 2050 Sustainability Plan to revitalize the State's long-term planning process to guide the future development of Hawaii.

     Your Committee further finds that several existing state agencies that serve various functions with respect to sustainability are under different state departments for administrative purposes.  Combining these agencies with their respective duties and responsibilities under a single state department will enable these agencies to unify their efforts under a single administrative umbrella to better identify, define and administer the State's long-range planning and sustainability initiatives and policies to eliminate duplication of effort and maximize state resources.

     Your Committee has amended the measure by:

     (1)  Adding "any other board or commission as provided by law" to the agencies under the jurisdiction of the Department of Planning and Sustainability in the proposed section    ‑2 for purposes of consistency;

     (2)  Clarifying in sections 17 and 18 of the bill that its references to the former departments from which the agencies (under the new department) were transferred that shall be deemed to refer to the Department of Planning and Sustainability; and

     (3)  Making technical amendments that have no substantive effect.

     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. 2555, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2555, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair