STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2482

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2860

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Economic Development and Taxation, to which was referred S.B. No. 2860 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO A TECHNOLOGY MASTER PLAN,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to create a High Technology Industry Task Force, attached to the High Technology Development Corporation, to develop a State Master Plan for High Technology (Master Plan) prior to the convening of the 2010 Regular Session and updated every two years thereafter.

     Testimony in support of this measure, with recommendations for amendments, was received from the University of Hawai‘i System, the High Technology Development Corporation, and the Hawaii Science & Technology Council.  The Chairperson of the Board of Education submitted comments.

     Your Committee finds that a well conceived Master Plan would provide direction for the State in making programmatic and fiscal decisions related to the growing technology industry.  In addition, your Committee understands that the University of Hawai‘i will be competing for $15,000,000 over three years in funding from the National Science Foundation's (NSF) Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR).  The deadline for a response to the request for proposals is expected to be in October 2008, with awards made in January 2009.

     EPSCoR is a program designed to fulfill the NSF's mandate to promote scientific progress nationwide.  An essential part of EPSCoR's goal of enhancing the competitive position of a jurisdiction's research and research-based education in science and engineering is a well-designed statewide science and technology initiative or plan (S&T Plan).  This S&T Plan establishes statewide goals and objectives, and provides a framework that guides the jurisdiction's utilization of resources from EPSCoR and other stakeholders, in order to achieve them.

     Your Committee further finds that this measure provides a timely and essential framework for development of the S&T Plan, which is so critical in exhibiting to the NSF that Hawaii is moving forward and that the State will have the ability to measure the effect of infrastructure investments in Hawaii.

     Your Committee has amended this measure accordingly, by:

     (1)  Establishing the Science and Technology Task Force in the University of Hawai‘i and appropriating the moneys to the University;

     (2)  Requiring the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives to nominate eight members each for the eighteen-member Task Force, and to include in their nominations senior-level leaders representing traditional and emerging industries, professional services, and cultural and natural resource constituencies;

     (3)  Requiring that a preliminary Science and Technology Plan be submitted to the 2009 Legislature; and

     (4)  Amending the findings and purpose section of this measure to reflect these changes.

     Your Committee also received a number of suggestions for additional Task Force members.  As written, this measure is sufficiently broad to encompass many of these recommendations, and your Committee will defer to the Task Force to make changes as deemed appropriate.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development and Taxation that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2860, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2860, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development and Taxation,

____________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair