STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2297

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2743

       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 Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2743 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE KAHO‘OLAWE ISLAND RESERVE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to utilize a portion of state conveyance tax revenue to replenish the Kaho‘olawe rehabilitation trust fund to be used for the long-term rehabilitation and maintenance of the Kaho‘olawe island reserve.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission, County of Maui Department of Planning, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaiian Affairs Caucus of the Democratic Party of Hawaii, Protect Kaho‘olawe Ohana, and twelve individuals.  Your Committees received comments from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii and one individual.

     Your Committees find that the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission is funded predominantly by a trust fund created in 1994 during the federal unexploded ordnance cleanup of Kaho‘olawe.  Though considerable, the federal appropriation totaling approximately $44,000,000 over a period of several years was not substantial enough to establish a sustainable endowment for the long-term restoration of Kaho‘olawe.  In the past ten years, the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission has been able to develop innovative restoration projects in the extremely harsh conditions of Kaho‘olawe that will serve as the foundation for the future restoration of the reserve.

     In 2013, the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission embarked on the development of a 2026 strategic plan for Kaho‘olawe, marking fifty years of occupation of Kaho‘olawe by the people of Hawaii.  This strategic plan will address the future restoration, management, and uses of Kaho‘olawe for the State, the people of Hawaii, and possibly a future sovereign Native Hawaiian entity.

     Auditor's Report No. 13-06, Audit of the Kaho‘olawe Rehabilitation Trust Fund, reported that the trust fund will be depleted by 2016.  Your Committees find it necessary to utilize a portion of state conveyance tax revenue to replenish the Kaho‘olawe rehabilitation trust fund to be used for the long-term rehabilitation and maintenance of the island reserve.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by 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 Water and Land and Hawaiian Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2743, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2743, 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 Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________ MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair