STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2486

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2756

       S.D. 2

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2010

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2756, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COST SHARING IN THE RELOCATION AND UNDERGROUNDING OF UTILITY FACILITIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to clarify the cost-sharing requirement for public utilities and other entities that occupy state or county rights-of-way for relocating their facilities due to highway development projects or undergrounding facilities.

Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from Hawaiian Electric Company.  Comments in opposition were submitted by the City and County of Honolulu Board of Water Supply and the Kauai Island Utility Cooperative.  The written comments may be reviewed on the Legislature’s website.

     Your Committee finds that this measure will clarify the division of costs between public and private entities that share public highway rights-of-way and provide for the consistent application of the law.

More specifically, this measure provides that a utility except for a telecommunications carrier utility owner, shall pay its share of betterment or relocation costs to the state or county agency thirty days prior to removal, relocation, replacement, or reconstruction of utility facilities, while a state or county agency is required to pay its full share of cost thirty days prior to construction.  Final cost share shall be based on the project's actual cost and subject to review and mutual agreement of the parties.  When federal funds are available, they be used for eighty per cent of the cost of undergrounding existing utilities.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of consistency, clarity, and style.

     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. 2756, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2756, S.D. 2.

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

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DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair