STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2350

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 2773

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Economic Development, Environment, and Technology, to which was referred S.B. No. 2773 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ALOHA+ CHALLENGE,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to provide funding to directly implement three of the six goals outlined in the Aloha+ Challenge:  natural resource management, clean energy, and green workforce development.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources; Hawaii Invasive Species Council; Coordinating Group on Alien Pest Species; O‘ahu Invasive Species Committee; Maui County Department of Water Supply; West Maui Mountains Watershed Partnership; Kaua‘i Watershed Alliance; Hawai‘i Center for Food Safety; The Nature Conservancy; Conservation Council for Hawai‘i; ‘Ai Pohaku; Mauigrown Coffee, Inc.; and twenty-one individuals.

     Your Committees find that through the adoption of Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 69, S.D. 1 (2014), the Legislature endorsed and supported a shared statewide commitment to sustainability through the integrated approach and targets of the Aloha+ Challenge to be achieved by 2030.  Given the important work that the Department of Land and Natural Resources does for the protection of the State's land and water, your Committees find that it is necessary to support the Department so that it can fulfill its natural resource management goals.

     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, Land, and Agriculture and Economic Development, Environment, and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2773, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2773, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Economic Development, Environment, and Technology,

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair