STAND. COM. REP. NO. 228

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 897

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 897 entitled:

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

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission for the management, restoration, and preservation of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve.

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission, Mayor of the County of Maui, County of Maui Department of Planning, Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana, Historic Hawai‘i Foundation, Conservation Council for Hawai‘i, Four Seasons Resort Maui, and twenty individuals.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from two individuals.

     Your Committee finds the need to support the financial viability of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission.  In addition to appropriating funds, it is the Committee's hope that the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission be able to emulate the models for areas such as the Northwestern Hawaiian islands, Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale Marine National Sanctuary, Marae of New Zealand, and other similar models which utilize limited commercial activities to help the achieve financial sustainability.

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Inserting language enabling the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve to be used for limited commercial activity for the purpose of generating revenue to support the rehabilitation and environmental restoration of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve, and other purposes consistent with chapter 6K, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

     (2)  Making the appropriation effective for the 2015-2016 fiscal year;

     (3)  Amending the effective date to July 1, 2015; and

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 897, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 897, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair