STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2986

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2305

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred H.B. No. 2305, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COFFEE BERRY BORER,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to extend the pesticide subsidy program manager position through the fiscal year immediately following the program sunset date and affirmatively extend the position's civil service and collective bargaining laws exemption.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture; Office of the Mayor of the County of Hawai‘i; Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii; Hawai‘i Farm Bureau; Hawaii Cattlemen's Council, Inc.; Ka Ohana O Na Pua; and O‘ahu County Committee on Legislative Priorities of the Democratic Party of Hawai‘i.

Your Committee finds that the pesticide subsidy program in the Department of Agriculture assists coffee growers with offsetting the costs of purchasing certain pesticides known to be effective against the coffee berry borer, a highly destructive coffee pest. The program was established to run for five years. Your Committee also finds that the current pesticide subsidy program manager position is a full-time, temporary position that is exempt from civil service and collective bargaining laws. Due to a provision in the civil service law, this exemption will expire on June 30, 2018. The pesticide subsidy program took longer than anticipated to implement, thus the program sunset date was extended from June 30, 2019, to June 30, 2021; however, the exemption of the pesticide subsidy program manager position was not similarly extended. Applications for a subsidy for pesticide purchases made in a fiscal year must be filed in the immediately following fiscal year. Therefore, for pesticide purchases made in the last fiscal year of the program, from July 1, 2020, to June 30, 2021, applications for subsidies must be filed in the immediately following fiscal year, anytime from July 1, 2021, to June 30, 2022. The manager position will be needed to process these applications for subsidies for costs incurred in the final year of the program; thus, your Committee finds that the exemption must be extended.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Clarifying that the current exemption from chapters 76 and 89, Hawaii Revised Statutes, for the subsidy program manager position are extended until the expiration date of the position; and

(2) 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 Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2305, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2305, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair