STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3389

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1635

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1635 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE JUDICIARY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this measure is to provide salary parity for the Administrative and Deputy Administrative Director of the Courts with their executive branch counterparts.

Specifically, the measure requires that:

(1)  The salary of the Administrative Director of the Courts be equal to the salary of the Administrative Director of the State; and

(2)  The salary of the Deputy Administrative Director of the Courts be equal to ninety-five per cent of the salary of the Administrative Director of the Courts.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Judiciary.

     Your Committee finds that in 2006, voters passed a constitutional amendment that provided for a mechanism to set the salaries of justices and judges, legislators, the governor and lieutenant governor, as well as those of the department heads or executive officers and the deputies or assistants of the executive branch.  However, the amendment did not provide for a mechanism to establish the Judiciary's Administrative Director and Deputy Administrative Director of the Court's salaries.  Your Committee believes that this measure will provide the appropriate mechanism to establish the salary of the Administrative Director and the Deputy Administrative Director of the Courts and conform their salaries to comparable positions within the executive branch.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1)  Changing the relative amount of the Deputy Administrative Director's salary from ninety-five per cent to an unspecified percentage of the Administrative Director of the Court's salary; and

(2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

     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. 1635, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1635, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair