HB922 SD2.DOC

PART I

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the nine hundred ninety-nine year homestead program is becoming increasingly difficult to manage, as conflicts often arise between family members who may have an interest in a nine hundred ninety-nine year lease. Existing leases are unique in that they can only be assigned to members of the lessee's family.

The purpose of this part is to expand the potential assignees of a homestead lease to include trustees of land trusts created for the purposes of managing and holding a homestead for the benefit of the lessee and lessee's family members.

SECTION 2. Section 171-99, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended by amending subsection (e) to read as follows:

"(e) Assignment; certificate of occupation or homestead lease. No existing certificate of occupation or existing homestead lease, or fractional interest thereof, shall be transferable or assignable except by conveyance, devise, bequest, or intestate succession and with the prior approval of the board of land and natural resources; provided that transfer or assignment by conveyance, devise, or bequest shall be limited to a member or members of the occupier's or lessee's family[.] or in the case of a homestead lease, to any person or persons designated as a trustee of a land trust.

For the purposes of this section[~~, "family"~~]:

"Family" means the spouse, civil union partner, reciprocal beneficiary, children, parents, siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, nieces, nephews, a parent's siblings, children of a parent's siblings, and grandchildren of a parent's siblings, of the occupier or lessee.

"Land trust" means a trust created for the purposes of managing and holding the homestead leasehold estate for the benefit of the lessee and lessee's family members. The lessee may be the trustee of the trust.

All the successors shall be subject to the performance of the unperformed conditions of the certificate of occupation or the homestead lease."

PART II

SECTION 3. The legislature has been seeking the establishment of a computerized, comprehensive inventory of public land trust lands for more than a decade. Act 125, Session Laws of Hawaii 2000, required the auditor to initiate and coordinate all efforts to establish an inventory of public land trust lands. Unfortunately, for numerous reasons, no such inventory currently exists.

Having an accurate inventory of public land trust lands and their disposition is crucial to the successful management of the public land trust lands described in section 5(f) of the Admission Act and article XII, section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution. This is critical to fulfilling the State's trust obligation in regards to the land and the office of Hawaiian affairs, as representative of native Hawaiian beneficiaries' right to receive twenty per cent of the income and proceeds from the public land trust.

The current lack of an accurate inventory of public land trust lands threatens the successful implementation of legislation proposed during the 2011 regular session. For instance, the establishment of a public school lands trust and the exchange of lands held by the department of land and natural resources at Sand Island, respectively, will be hindered unless there is an accurate inventory of public land trust lands. The department of land and natural resources must complete an inventory of public land trust lands for our State to move forward.

The Hawaii supreme court has repeatedly held that the legislature has a constitutional obligation to clarify the amount of revenues derived from the public land trust that should be annually transferred to the office of Hawaiian affairs for the benefit of native Hawaiians. Delayed for years, work on a comprehensive and accurate inventory must begin immediately to ensure that the State meets its fiduciary responsibilities as the trustee of the public land trust pursuant to section 5(f) of the Admission Act.

The department of land and natural resources has already collected a substantial amount of information about lands that are in the public land trust. The focus of this measure is the further study or review of the trust status of those lands to which state agencies hold title and the disposition of those lands, to verify the accuracy of or make amendments to their trust status as indicated in the department's existing inventory of public land trust lands.

The purpose of this part is to facilitate the establishment of a comprehensive information system for inventorying and maintaining information about the lands of the public land trust described in section 5(f) of the Admission Act and article XII, section 4 of the Hawaii State Constitution.

SECTION 4. (a) For purposes of this part:

"Ceded lands" means those lands ceded to the United States by the Republic of Hawaii under the joint resolution of annexation approved on July 7, 1898.

"Department" means the department of land and natural resources unless the context clearly indicates otherwise.

"Public land trust" means that public land trust established in section 5(f) of the Admission Act.

(b) The department shall initiate and coordinate all efforts to establish a public land trust information system. The information system shall consist of a complete and accurate inventory of all lands in the public land trust to which state agencies hold title or over which they maintain management control.

(c) Beginning July 1, 2011, the department shall identify all of the lands that are to be included in the inventory of public land trust lands. After interviewing representatives of each of the four counties of the city and county of Honolulu, Kauai, Maui, and Hawaii, and conducting discussions with the office of Hawaiian affairs, the department of Hawaiian home lands, the department of transportation, the attorney general, the director of finance, and other state agencies holding title to public land trust lands or to which public land trust lands have been set aside, the department shall also determine what other information would be useful to include in the inventory. At minimum, the department shall determine whether the following kinds of information about each parcel of land in the operating inventory would be useful:

(1) The parcel's identification description by metes and bounds, land court registration information, tax map key number, or a combination of these methods;

(2) The parcel's size rounded to the nearest acre;

(3) The date the parcel was acquired;

(4) If conveyed out of the public land trust, the date the parcel was conveyed;

(5) Whether the parcel was acquired by the State pursuant to section 5(b) or 5(e) of the Admission Act or Public Law 88-233, or in exchange for a parcel of land acquired by the State pursuant to those laws;

(6) Whether the parcel is a subdivided portion of a larger parcel acquired by the State pursuant to section 5(b) or 5(e) of the Admission Act or Public Law 88-233, or in exchange for a parcel of land acquired by the State pursuant to those laws;

(7) Whether the parcel or any portion of the parcel is ceded land, and the extent to which the parcel consists of ceded land;

(8) The name of the state or county agency holding title to the parcel;

(9) Whether the parcel has been set aside and the name of the state or county agency to which the parcel has been set aside;

(10) The parcel's current state land use district designation; state land classifications pursuant to section 171-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and county zoning designations;

(11) A description of all natural resources, including minerals and water, found on or appurtenant to the parcel;

(12) A description of every easement, covenant, regulatory condition, or other benefit or servitude to which the parcel is entitled or subject; and

(13) A description of all leases, uses, or other dispositions to which the parcel has been put.

(d) The department shall also conduct an investigation into the most appropriate information system to establish and maintain the inventory of public land trust lands, including:

(1) The type of hardware and software appropriate for storing and maintaining the information system;

(2) Whether the information system should be established as a geographic information system;

(3) The tasks needing to be performed to complete and establish the information system;

(4) The sequence in which the tasks needing to be performed should be completed;

(5) Whether and to what extent state and county agencies holding title to public land trust lands or to which public land trust lands have been set aside should continue maintaining separate inventories of the public land trust lands;

(6) Whether a single agency should be responsible for maintaining the information system;

(7) To which agency the responsibility should be delegated if a single agency concept is chosen; and

(8) The extent to which other agencies should be required to cooperate and assist in that effort.

(e) The department shall identify existing sources of data, information, and resources that can be incorporated into or used to establish the inventory of public land trust lands and public land trust information system, including existing inventories of the ceded lands and the public land trust lands established or maintained by the federal government, the office of Hawaiian affairs, the department of Hawaiian home lands, the University of Hawaii, the department of transportation, the Hawaii housing finance and development corporation, other state agencies, the counties, or private entities.

(f) The department shall:

(1) Estimate the total cost of establishing the public land trust information system;

(2) Identify possible sources of funding to defray that cost; and

(3) Identify the factors to be considered in prioritizing the expenditures to be made in each fiscal year,

if an incremental or phased implementation process is used to complete the system.

SECTION 5. All state and county agencies shall assist the department in facilitating the establishment of the public land trust information system and shall comply with any and all requests the department may make for any information and services pertinent to the completion of the information system.

SECTION 6. All state agencies shall report to the department by:

(1) August 1, 2011, each and every parcel of land, or portion of a parcel of land, to which the reporting agency holds title or that has been set aside to the reporting agency, regardless of whether the land is within the public land trust, is ceded land, or both;

(2) August 1, 2011, on the disposition or transfer of any parcel of land, or portion of a parcel of land, to which the agency holds title, and provide documents pertinent to that disposition or transfer; and

(3) January 1, 2012, any inaccuracy discovered in the information provided to the department pursuant to paragraph (1) or (2) and include:

(A) A description of how the inaccuracy will be corrected; and

(B) Copies of all documents related to the correction of those inaccuracies.

SECTION 7. (a) The department shall submit a progress report to the legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the regular sessions of 2012 and 2013. The progress report shall:

(1) Indicate what is necessary to complete the inventory of public land trust lands and the public land trust information system; and

(2) Include any proposed legislation that the department deems necessary to facilitate the expeditious completion and support of the inventory and information system.

(b) The inventory and information system shall be completed and operational by December 31, 2013, unless the department advises the legislature otherwise in a progress report.

SECTION 8. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii the sum of $ or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2011-2012 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2012-2013 for the establishment and maintenance of a computerized, comprehensive statewide inventory of public land trust lands and public land trust information system and funding for one staff position for a database and application developer; provided that no funds appropriated shall be expended unless matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the office of Hawaiian affairs and paid to the department of land and natural resources.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of land and natural resources for the purposes of this part.

PART III

SECTION 9. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 10. This Act shall take effect upon its approval.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES	H.B. NO.	922
TWENTY-SIXTH LEGISLATURE, 2011		S.D. 2
STATE OF HAWAII