STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1200

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 160

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 160, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUMAN SERVICES AND HEALTH,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to provide additional funding for the Kupuna Care program to provide Hawaii's elderly population access to affordable and quality home- and community-based services.

     The measure also appropriates moneys from the emergency and budget reserve fund to maintain funding levels of various programs that are essential for public health, safety, welfare, and education.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from Liz Ann Salvador, Chair, and Waynette Cabral, Executive Administrator, State Council on Developmental Disabilities; Barbara Kim Stanton, State Director, AARP Hawaii; Eldon L. Wegner, Ph.D., Policy Advisory Board for Elder Affairs; Howard S. Garval, President and Chief Executive Officer, Child & Family Service; M. Nalani Fujimori Kaina, Executive Director, Legal Aid Society of Hawaii; Louis Erteschik, Staff Attorney, Hawaii Disability Rights Center; Liane K. Akana, Executive Director, Read To Me International; Bruce McCullough, Chair, Legislative Committee, Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans; and eight individuals.

     Your Committee finds that expenditures from the emergency and budget reserve fund are needed to meet the conditions of emergency, economic downturn, and unforeseen reduction in revenues that the State currently faces.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Clarifying that the appropriation to the Read To Me International Foundation is intended to strengthen families and promote childhood literacy;

     (2)  Making an unspecified appropriation out of the emergency and budget reserve fund for the HOPE probation program;

     (3)  Requiring that any moneys or appropriations from the emergency and budget reserve fund that are used to meet any general fund shortfall during the 2011-2012 fiscal year be reimbursed from the general fund to the credit of the emergency and budget reserve fund no later than July 1, 2012;

     (4)  Changing dollar amounts and appropriations to unspecified sums;

     (5)  Adding an appropriation for the housing placement program within the Department of Human Services;

     (6)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2117, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

     (7)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity, consistency, 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 H.B. No. 160, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 160, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair