STAND. COM. REP. NO. 252

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 456

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Water and Land and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 456 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO MAUNA KEA STATE RECREATIONAL AREA,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to transfer in fee simple Mauna Kea State Recreational Area from the Department of Land and Natural Resources to the County of Hawaii on January 1, 2014.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the County of Hawaii.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

     Your Committees find that the jurisdiction over the Mauna Kea State Recreational Area, which is located on the Island of Hawaii, should rightfully rest with the County of Hawaii as the more appropriate government administrative entity.  According to testimony of the Department of Land and Natural Resources, the State and the County of Hawaii had previously worked to develop agreements to effectuate this transfer in 2010.

     Your Committees note that this measure includes transfer of jurisdiction provisions to address concerns raised in testimony.  It is not the intent of your Committees that this measure in any way impinge upon or interfere with the operations, funding, and activities of the Mauna Kea Observatories.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting the tax map key number of the property to be transferred.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water and Land and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 456, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 456, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water and Land and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

____________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair