STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2639

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2074

       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 S.B. No. 2074 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR COLLECTIVE BARGAINING COST ITEMS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate unspecified amounts, for fiscal years 2013-2015, to fund salary increases, collective bargaining cost items, Hawaii employer-union health benefits trust fund costs, and other cost adjustments for officers and employees within collective bargaining unit (9) (registered professional nurses) and their excluded counterparts.

Your Committee received written comments in support of the measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the University of Hawaii System.  The Department of Health and the Department of Budget and Finance submitted written comments on this measure.

Your Committee finds that negotiations for collective bargaining agreements for bargaining unit (9) are currently in progress.  This measure provides a legislative vehicle to fund collective bargaining costs for officers and employees in collective bargaining unit (9), along with state officers and employees who are excluded from collective bargaining, but belong to the same compensation plans as those officers and employees in collective bargaining unit (9), if an agreement is reached or an arbitration award is issued prior to the end of the 2014 Regular Session.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical nonsubstantive amendments for purposes of style, clarity, and consistency.

     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 S.B. No. 2074, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2074, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair