STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2002

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2245

       S.D. 1

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2012

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2245 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to allow for appropriations by the Legislature to the reduced ignition propensity cigarette program special fund, and to appropriate $400,000 from the general fund to the special fund to implement the reduced ignition propensity cigarette program and hire necessary staff.  

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, County of Hawaii Fire Department, County of Maui Department of Fire and Public Safety, and Kauai Fire Department.

     According to the State Fire Council, the appropriation will be used to hire two full-time personnel to accomplish the following:

(1)  Adopt administrative rules for program implementation, establish compliance inspections, and approve forms and enforcement procedures and guidelines;

(2)  Receive, verify, and approve certifications at three-year intervals for approximately six hundred different brands of cigarettes from various manufacturers;

(3)  Compile a list of approved brands, verify the list with the Department of the Attorney General for state tax stamp compliance, and post the list on a state website;

(4)  Review and approve, as needed, alternative test methods or fire standard compliance markings submitted by a manufacturer; and

(5)  Submit compliance tests to an accredited laboratory to verify that performance standards are met.

     Your Committee finds that this measure will reduce the number of fires caused by cigarettes.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the expending fund from the general fund to the temporary deposits account in the trust fund of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2245, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2245, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Public Safety, Government Operations, and Military Affairs,

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair