STAND. COM. REP. NO. 316

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 1467

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Human Services and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 1467 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE OFFICE OF AGING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to promote the Director of the Executive Office on Aging position to a Deputy Director of the Department of Health position, and remove the current salary restriction on that position.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Executive Office on Aging, Catholic Charities Hawai‘i, and two individuals.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Health and the Department of Budget and Finance.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Alliance for Retired Americans.

     Your Committees find that Hawaii's elderly population, age sixty and older, represents the fastest growing segment of the State's population.  Your Committees further find that projections for Hawaii indicate that by the year 2030, one in four individuals will be over sixty years of age.  This kind of population change has significant impacts on current physical infrastructure and systems of service.

     Your Committees also find that, according to section 349-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes, the Director of the Executive Office on Aging is solely responsible for the performance, development, and control of programs, policies, and activities on behalf of elders.  Given the increasing population of Hawaii's elderly, this is a significant amount of responsibility for that Director.

     Your Committees have heard the concern regarding the establishment of the Executive Office on Aging Director as a Deputy Director and whether this will be counterintuitive to the legislatively intended autonomy of the Executive Office on Aging.  Your Committees have also heard the concerns regarding the Deputy Director of Health's jurisdiction being limited in scope to public health.  Your Committees note that the issues faced by an aging population are interdisciplinary and reach far beyond public health.  Accordingly, your Committees believe these concerns merit further discussion by the Committee on Ways and Means.

     Your Committees also urge the Director of the Executive Office on Aging to convene a work group to discuss alternative solutions to address the purposes of this measure.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to allow for further discussion.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1467, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1467, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services and Health,

____________________________ JOSH GREEN, M.D., Chair

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair