STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1516
Honolulu, Hawaii
RE: H.B. No. 1345
H.D. 1
S.D. 2
Honorable Donna Mercado Kim
President of the Senate
Twenty-Eighth State Legislature
Regular Session of 2015
State of Hawaii
Madam:
Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1345, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate moneys for the operation, repair, maintenance, and improvement of the East Kauai Water Users' Cooperative irrigation system.
Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, and one individual.
Your Committee finds that the East Kauai Water Users' Cooperative has operated the East Kauai irrigation system for more than eight years as a voluntary effort. Water is vital to agriculture, and the twenty-one-mile East Kauai irrigation system services more than twelve thousand five hundred acres of agricultural land. Without the Cooperative's efforts, the irrigation system would have been abandoned, leaving many Kauai farmers without water to grow their crops. Your Committee further finds that ensuring the survival of an efficient and properly maintained irrigation system will help crops continue to flourish on Kauai.
Your Committee has amended this measure by adding fiscal year 2016-2017 to the appropriation authorized by the measure for fiscal year 2015-2016.
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 H.B. No. 1345, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1345, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,
|
|
|
________________________________ JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair |
|
|
|
|