STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3156

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2679

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 Committees on Education and Water and Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 2679, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING THE TRANSFER OF LANDS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Authorize the Department of Education to acquire any real, personal, or mixed property or any interest therein for public educational purposes, under certain conditions;

(2) Specify that lands to which the Department of Education holds title shall not be considered public lands; and

(3) Transfer fee interest in certain public school lands from the City and County of Honolulu and Department of Land and Natural Resources to the Department of Education.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education, Hawaii State Teachers Association, Building Industry Association of Hawaii, and one individual. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Department of Parks and Recreation for the City and County of Honolulu, ‘Āina Haina Community Association, and one individual. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committees find that the Department of Education has managed county school lands throughout the State since 1965. Your Committees further find that many public schools in Hawaii require extensive renovation or rebuilding, and that this process is unnecessarily complicated by having state schools on county land, or situated on both county and state land. Your Committees additionally find that transferring a fee simple interest for county school lands to the State will greatly simplify the process of undertaking much needed repairs and renovations.

Your Committees have amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting the contents of S.B. No. 2237, S.D. 2, (Regular Session of 2018) which:

(1) Requires the City and County of Honolulu to transfer to the Department of Education all property upon which a public elementary or intermediate school is situated;

(2) Gives the Department of Education the power to acquire and hold title to real, personal, or mixed property for use for public educational purposes;

(3) Removes lands to which the Department of Education holds title from the definition of "public lands";

(4) Requires legislative approval prior to the sale or gift of lands to which the Department of Education holds title; and

(5) Appropriates an unspecified amount of funds as a grant-in-aid to the City and County of Honolulu to prepare, execute, and record the quitclaim deeds required by this measure.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Water and Land that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2679, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2679, 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 Committees on Education and Water and Land,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ MICHELLE N. KIDANI, Chair