STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2215

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2490

       S.D. 1

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2490 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMUNITY HEALTH CENTERS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds from the Community Health Centers Special Fund for use by community health centers in the State, and to require the Governor to release the revenues in the Community Health Centers Special Fund for use in fiscal year 2010-2011.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; Hawai‘i Primary Care Association; Aloha Care; Hawaii Dental Hygienists Association; Waianae Coast Comprehensive Health Center; Waimanalo Health Center; Waikiki Health Center; Lanai Community Health Center; Ho‘ola Lahui Hawaii; Kailua Neighborhood Board No. 31; National Cornerstone Healthcare Services Inc.; Bay Clinic, Inc.; and forty individuals.  Comments were received from the Department of the Attorney General.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

     Your Committee finds that Act 316, Session Laws of Hawaii 2006, increased the state taxes on cigarettes, and allocated a portion of the increased tax revenue to community health centers in Hawaii.  The amount of cigarette tax revenue collected in fiscal year 2008-2009 for the benefit of community health centers is estimated to be $9,000,000, an average of less than $600,000 per community health center.  The administration and the Department of Health have not released these revenues for use by community health centers in the State.  The Department of Health testified that it supports this measure but it is restricted in what it can spend because of the budget ceiling.  This measure addresses and remedies the budget limitation.

     Your Committee notes that the Legislature is vested with the constitutional powers to make appropriations as provided in Article VII, section 9, of the Hawaii State Constitution.  The Hawaii State Constitution is silent on any specific grant of authority to the Governor to restrict the expenditure of appropriated funds, instead the matter is relegated to law (Article VII, section 5).  Furthermore, there is no specific statutory authority allowing the Governor to withhold the release of funds that have been appropriated by the Legislature.  That authority is inferred from the allotment system.

     Your Committee is of the opinion that the absence of any specific constitutional or statutory authority for the Governor to withhold the release of appropriated funds evinces a clear intent by the Legislature, which proposes constitutional amendments and enacts statutes, that the Governor should not have such authority.  An opinion from the State Attorney General, as requested by your Committee, is only able to cite case law which relies upon judicial interpretation of constitutional and statutory law in an effort to fill in what is explicitly missing.  Your Committee cannot accept such rationalization where the public health is concerned.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2010 to be consistent with the fiscal year appropriation.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Health that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2490, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2490, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair