STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2261

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2399

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2014

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing and Human Services, to which was referred S.B. No. 2399 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to create a geriatric research and technology park under the High Technology Development Corporation.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Community Alliance for Mental Health.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation and High Technology Development Corporation.

     Your Committees find that since 2000, Hawaii's elderly population, those aged sixty-five and older, grew slightly faster than the national growth rate.  Since statehood, Hawaii's proportion of elderly to total population has increased three-fold, from roughly five percent in 1960 to fifteen percent in 2012.  During this same period, the elderly segment of the nation's population only increased from nine percent to fourteen percent.

     Your Committees further find that Wahiawa provides one of the top senior care service programs.  Aged to Perfection is an adult day care center that provides elders with social activities, meals, and general supervision.  This program draws attention from interns from top universities across the country, including the University of Hawaii, University of Southern California, and University of Arizona.  As such, a geriatric research and technology park can be planned and designed in central Oahu in consultation with various entities, such as the Aging and Disability Resource Center, Aged to Perfection Hawaii, and Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, to comply with the most current Wahiawa community town and master plan and Wahiawa urban design plan.  Establishing an economic hub for the geriatric industry may attract new businesses and technologies to provide jobs for central Oahu communities, as well as products and services for neighboring geriatric facilities and programs.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language to require that the planning and design of the geriatric research and technology park comply with community and town master plans and urban design plans; and

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing and Human Services that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2399, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2399, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing and Human Services,

____________________________ SUZANNE CHUN OAKLAND, Chair

____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair