STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1396
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 353
H.D. 1
S.D. 2
Honorable Donna Mercado Kim
President of the Senate
Twenty-Seventh State Legislature
Regular Session of 2013
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 353, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to control and contain damage caused by the coffee berry borer and for research to develop new methods of preventing and treating infestations.
More specifically, this measure:
(1) Makes an appropriation of $500,000 out of the agricultural development and food security special fund to the United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center to research and develop methods for the prevention and treatment of coffee berry borer infestations; and
(2) Makes an appropriation of $330,000 out of the agricultural development and food security special fund to the Coffee Berry Borer Task Force to fund efforts to control and mitigate the damage from the coffee berry borer infestation in Hawaii.
Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Beautiful Edge of the World B&B and Coffee Farm; Daily Fix Coffee; Dysart Farms; Hala Tree Coffee Plantation; Hawaii Coffee Association; Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation; Hoogasian Flowers, Inc.; Kaiwi Farms; Kanalani Ohana Farm; Kona Coffee Council; Kona County Farm Bureau; Kona Coffee Farmers Association; Hawaii Farmers Union United, Kona Chapter; Kona View Coffee; Konaloha Farms; Luther Coffee Farm; Onouli Farm, LLC; Manila Extract; Makua Coffee Company; Mauka Meadows Coffee Farm; Moki's Farm; Ohana Farm Orchards; Original Hawaiian Chocolate Factory; Athena of Hawaii Coffee, LLC; Paradise Found Farm; Rancho Aloha; Smithfarms; and twenty-two private individuals.
Your Committee finds that coffee is the fourth largest agricultural crop in the State and is a highly valued commodity in Hawaii's economy. Your Committee also finds that, in recent years, the coffee berry borer, a small beetle that is harmful to coffee crops worldwide, has infested coffee crops in the Kona and South Kona regions. The coffee berry borer has the potential to spread to coffee grown in other areas of the State, thus threatening devastation to Hawaii's entire coffee industry. Your Committee believes that funding efforts to control and contain the damage caused by the coffee berry borer and to develop new methods of preventing and treating infestations are critical to ensure the survival of the coffee farms in the State.
Your Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Changing the amounts of the appropriations to unspecified amounts;
(2) Changing the funding source of the appropriations from the agricultural development and food security special fund to the general revenues of the State;
(3) Appropriating funds to the Department of Agriculture, rather than the United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Center, to research methods to prevent and treat coffee berry borer infestations and specifying that the funds shall not be expended unless matched by an unspecified amount from private or other government sources;
(4) Appropriating funds to the University of Hawaii, rather than the Coffee Berry Borer Task Force, to fund efforts to control and mitigate the damage from coffee berry borer infestations;
(5) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion; and
(6) Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of consistency, clarity, and style.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 353, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 353, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,
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____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair |
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