STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2291

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2876

       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 Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2876 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE VII, SECTION 12, OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION TO ASSIST DAM AND RESERVOIR OWNERS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to propose a constitutional amendment to authorize the State to issue special purpose revenue bonds and use the proceeds from the bonds to assist dam and reservoir owners.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Hawai‘i Farm Bureau, Land Use Research Foundation, Department of Budget and Finance, and Alexander & Baldwin, Inc.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from Hamakua County Farm Bureau.

     Your Committees find that the implementation of the Dam and Reservoir Safety Act of 2007, codified as chapter 179D, part II, Hawaii Revised Statutes, mandates dam and reservoir owners to bring their dams and reservoirs into compliance.  Over eighty percent of the dams in Hawaii were constructed before 1940 to support the sugarcane plantations.  Due to the age of these facilities and deferred maintenance due to demise of the sugar industry, without needed safety improvements, many dams could pose risks to life and property when they fail.  Depending on the extent of the required improvements, some dam and reservoirs owners may not have the resources to fund these improvements.

     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 Judiciary and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2876, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2876, 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 Judiciary and Labor,

____________________________ CLAYTON HEE, Chair

____________________________ MALAMA SOLOMON, Chair