STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2538

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2321

       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. 2321 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNCLAIMED PROPERTY,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide that unclaimed cash of less than $100 per apparent owner in the unclaimed property trust fund is to be automatically deposited into the general fund after the expiration of certain periods of time from the date of deposit into the trust fund, based upon the amount of cash.

     The Department of Budget and Finance provided comments on this measure.

     Your Committee finds that section 523A-26(d), Hawaii Revised Statutes, already provides that all unencumbered and unexpended funds in excess of $1,300,000 on balance in the unclaimed property trust fund on June 30 of each year shall lapse to the credit of the general fund.  In addition, this measure as received by your Committee does not specify its applicability to funds deposited into the unclaimed property trust fund prior to the effective date of this measure.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by replacing its contents with provisions that require claims for funds of any amount less than $100 in the unclaimed property trust fund to be filed within ten years of the deposit of the funds into the trust fund.  The application of the ten-year time period commences on July 1, 2014, for funds already deposited into the trust fund prior to that date.  On or after July 1, 2014, the ten-year time period will commence from the date of deposit of the funds into the trust fund.  At the expiration of the ten-year time period, unclaimed funds that are subject to this measure will escheat to the State and be transferred to the general fund.

     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. 2321, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2321, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair