STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2542

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2057

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2057 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SALARIES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to clarify Act 85, Session Laws of Hawaii 2009 (Act 85), as amended by Act 57, Session Laws of Hawaii 2011 (Act 57), with regard to salary rates for executive, judicial, and legislative officials to conform to the effective dates in the recommendations of the 2006 Salary Commission.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Judiciary and the Hawaii State Bar Association.

     Your Committees find that Act 85, as amended, establishes salary reductions for executive, judicial, and legislative officials to extend through December 31, 2013.  A new Salary Commission will convene in November of 2012 to develop salary recommendations for consideration by the Legislature convening for the Regular Session of 2013.  Based on past practice, salary recommendations will presumably include salary rates for executive and judicial officials effective July 1, 2013, and for the next five fiscal years.

     Your Committees further find that Act 85, as amended, provides that effective January 1, 2014, executive and judicial officials shall be paid at the rate effective July 1, 2009, while legislators shall be compensated at the rate for January 1, 2014.  This measure allows the new Salary Commission to make recommendations on salaries as contemplated in Article XVI, Section 3.5, of the Hawaii State Constitution, for all salaried officials.

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

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2057, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2057, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Judiciary and Labor and Ways and Means,

____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair