STAND. COM. REP. NO.  1267-12

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2012

RE:   S.B. No. 2511

      S.D. 2

      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 Economic Revitalization & Business, to which was referred S.B. No. 2511, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to reduce the adverse impact of single-use checkout bag waste in Hawaii by establishing a fee for the distribution of single-use checkout bags and directing that the fee revenues be used to fund programs to mitigate the damaging effects of single-use checkout bags.

The Department of Land and Natural Resources, Department of Health, Board of Water Supply, Maui County Department of Water Supply, Retail Merchants of Hawaii, Times Supermarket, Safeway, Hawaii Food Industry Association, The Pacific Resource Partnership, The Nature Conservancy, Trust for Public Land, Conservation Council for Hawaii, Hawaii Green Growth Initiative, Three Mountain Alliance Watershed Partnership, Outdoor Circle, Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species, Maui Invasive Species Committee, West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership, For the Fishes, Kauai Watershed Alliance, Surfrider Foundation, Sierra Club, Office of Mauna Kea Management, Ocean Devotion Hawaii, and numerous individuals testified in support of this measure.  Two individuals testified in opposition to this measure.  The Tax Foundation of Hawaii and Hawaii Foodbank provided comments on this measure.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Replacing the contents of this measure with H.B. No. 2260, H.D. 2, Regular Session of 2012, which reflects the House of Representatives' position on the same issue;

     (2)  Specifying that food donation organizations are not a business that is subject to the single-use checkout bag fee;

     (3)  Specifying that the first $3,500,000 of the fees collected shall be deposited into the general fund and the amount of fees collected thereafter shall be deposited into the natural area reserve fund;

     (4)  Exempting small businesses from the annual reporting requirement to the Department of Health on the number of single-use checkout bags provided; and

     (5)  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 Economic Revitalization & Business that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2511, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it be referred to the Committee on Finance in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2511, S.D. 2, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Revitalization & Business,

____________________________

ANGUS L.K. McKELVEY, Chair