STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1242

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 865

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

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. 865, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOL REDEVELOPMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to improve public school facilities and infrastructure to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century by optimizing the use of public school lands.

     Specifically, this measure:

     (1)  Establishes a three-year pilot program to generate revenue from use of public school lands for public purposes;

     (2)  Establishes the school facilities special fund within chapter 302A, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

     (3)  Requires the Lieutenant Governor to submit a report relating to the pilot program to the Legislature prior to the convening of the Regular Sessions of 2014 through 2016; and

     (4)  Appropriates an unspecified sum of funds for the establishment of the pilot program.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the City and County of Honolulu, the He‘e Coalition, the Hawaii Institute for Public Affairs, and the General Contractors Association of Hawaii.

     Your Committee finds that underused public school lands on the State's two hundred fifty-seven school campuses are an untapped resource that could generate revenue to provide the infrastructure necessary to make classrooms, campuses, and communities suitable for the twenty-first century.  Your Committee believes that the pilot program established by this measure will lay important groundwork for a statewide approach and plan to optimize the use of public school lands and to modernize public school facilities.

     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. 865, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair