STAND. COM. REP. NO.  839-12

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2012

RE:   H.B. No. 2324

      H.D. 2

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 2324, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BROADBAND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to temporarily exempt the upgrading and new construction of broadband facilities on state property from state and county permitting processes.

The Office of Environmental Quality Control, Sierra Club, Life of the Land, Kailua Neighborhood Board, and two individuals testified in opposition to this measure.  The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Transportation, Office of Planning, Hawaiian Telcom, and Hawaiian Electric Company and its subsidiaries provided comments on this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Narrowing the broadband exemption to apply to broadband facilities on state buildings and the property on which the state buildings are located; and

     (2)  Changing the effective date of this measure to July 1, 2012.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2324, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2324, H.D. 2.

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

____________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair