STAND. COM. REP. NO. 896

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    S.B. No. 897

       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 S.B. No. 897, S.D. 1, 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 support the rehabilitation and environmental restoration of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve.

Specifically, the measure:

     (1)  Authorizes the use of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve for limited commercial activities, as permitted by the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission; and

     (2)  Appropriates $6,000,000 for the management, restoration, and preservation of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve.

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Mayor of the County of Maui, the Department of Planning of the County of Maui, the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission, and eighteen individuals.  Your Committee received written comments in opposition to this measure from the Protect Kaho‘olawe ‘Ohana, the Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies, and three individuals.  Two individuals provided written comments on the measure.

     Your Committee finds that the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission is primarily funded by the Kaho‘olawe rehabilitation trust fund that was created during the federal cleanup of unexploded ordnance on Kaho‘olawe.  Your Committee further finds that a 2013 report by the Office of the Auditor found that the Kaho‘olawe rehabilitation trust fund will be depleted by 2016.  Your Committee believes that this measure will provide necessary funding to enable the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission to continue its management of the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve beyond the 2015-2016 fiscal year.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Replacing the language that repeals the strict prohibition on the use of the Island Reserve for commercial activity, by allowing limited commercial activities as permitted by the Commission, with language that instead authorizes the use of the Island Reserve for limited revenue-generating activities, as permitted by the Commission, to support the rehabilitation and environmental restoration of the Island Reserve;

     (2)  Requiring the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve Commission to submit a financial self-sufficiency and sustainability plan to the Legislature prior to the Regular Session of 2016;

     (3)  Making conforming amendments to the purpose section to reflect amendments made to the substantive provisions of the measure;

     (4)  Changing the appropriation from $6,000,000 to an unspecified amount; and

     (5)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

     Your Committee intends that the Commission consider engaging in limited revenue-generating activities at its Kihei properties as well as within the Kaho‘olawe Island Reserve.

     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. 897, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 897, S.D. 2.

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

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair