STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2798

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 3081

       S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 3081 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LABOR,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to support Maui's workforce.

Specifically, this measure addresses the pending unemployment and dislocation of individuals due to the closure of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company by offsetting the expiration of job-driven national emergency grant funds with an appropriation of $850,000 in general funds to establish, administer, and support on-the-job training programs on Maui.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Alexander & Baldwin, The Chamber of Commerce Hawaii, Hawaii Construction Alliance, Hawaii Farm Bureau, Hawaii State AFL-CIO, ILWU Local 142, and three individuals.

     Your Committee finds that the closure of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company will cause the loss of over six hundred jobs on Maui.  Local restaurants, stores, families, and students may also be affected by this closure because income previously earned by Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company employees will no longer be expended in the local Maui economy.  Your Committee also finds that in 2014, the United States Department of Labor awarded Hawaii a Job-Driven National Emergency Grant to implement or expand job-driven training programs for dislocated workers.  These moneys are set to expire on June 30, 2016, thus making the moneys unavailable for many of the Hawaiian Commercial and Sugar Company workers who are scheduled to be laid off in the latter part of 2016.  Accordingly, your Committee finds that this measure will assist dislocated workers and the residents of Maui by providing on-the-job training programs.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the:

     (1)  Appropriation amount from $850,000 to an unspecified sum; and

     (2)  Effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

     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 S.B. No. 3081, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3081, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair