SB699 SD1

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum serves the people and State of Hawai‘i through its ongoing work to study, preserve, perpetuate, and share Hawai‘i's natural and cultural history. It was officially designated as the state museum of natural and cultural history by the Hawai‘i state legislature in 1988 and is the world's premier resource for Hawaiian and Pacific materials, housing the world's largest collection of Hawaiian and Oceanic cultural artifacts as well as over twenty-two million biological specimens from Hawai‘i and the Pacific. The cultural collections contain unique and irreplaceable materials of Hawai‘i and the Pacific, which are essential to perpetuating the Hawaiian culture and innovating from a base of knowledge. The natural history collections represent a "library of life" that documents changes in Hawai‘i's environment over time and provides information crucial to protecting native species and habitats, as well as combating invasive species.

Over its one hundred thirty-year history, Bishop Museum has stewarded the collective cultural and environmental heritage of Hawai‘i; preserved and translated the oral history of Native Hawaiians throughout the island chain; published key Hawaiian language and cultural resources; founded fields of study and performed research leading to countless discoveries; mounted major exhibitions that have celebrated the nature, culture, and history of Hawai‘i and the Pacific; served state and federal resource managers and agencies; and produced a wide range of educational and public programs for Hawai‘i's community.

Bishop Museum's collections and scientific expertise are regularly accessed by state agencies, including the department of land and natural resources, department of health, department of agriculture, and University of Hawai‘i. State entities account for approximately one-quarter of all collection usage at the museum, and museum staff record a minimum of two months' worth of cumulative staff time per year to support various state agency requests at no charge. Bishop Museum also provides training to state personnel in entomology, botany, malacology, species identification, taxonomy, and other areas at no charge.

Bishop Museum biologists work closely with state scientists to assist in identifying weeds, insects, snails, reptiles, and other intercepted, potentially invasive species. During the Christmas season when large numbers of trees are imported from the Pacific Northwest, museum staff identify intercepted snails and slugs from the tree shipments for the department of agriculture. In a single year, the museum identified more than twenty potential new invasive slugs and snails through the tree shipments and helped to prevent their establishment in Hawai‘i. The museum also identifies all snakes and other reptiles and amphibians that are intercepted by the State's plant quarantine officials. Museum biologists are also working with the department of health, department of agriculture, University of Hawai‘i, Hawai‘i invasive species council, and others to conduct field surveys and screen snails and slugs for the parasite that causes rat lungworm disease.

In addition, Bishop Museum provides vital educational programs and resources to students and teachers of the department of education, including science, technology, engineering, and math programs that address the department's science standards. The museum's educators serve more than twenty-five thousand students per year through various on-site educational programs.

The State has supported Bishop Museum's designation as the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History through an annual appropriation of general revenues to support the museum's operational activities, which are of great cultural, scientific, and intrinsic value to the State of Hawai‘i. This annual appropriation has decreased significantly over the preceding decade, from $2,470,000 in 1992, which represented twenty-two per cent of the museum's then operating budget, or $4,500,000 in today's dollars, to its current appropriation of $626,000, covering just four per cent of the museum's operating budget.

The purpose of this Act is to:

(1) Beginning with the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium and each fiscal biennium thereafter, require the governor to include in the executive budget a minimum amount per fiscal year to be allocated to the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History; and

(2) Appropriate funds to support the work of the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

SECTION 2. Section 6E-40, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:

"§6E-40 Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum. (a) The official designation of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum shall be the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History.

(b) The qualifying standards and conditions related to the receipt of funds contained in chapter 42F shall not apply to funds received by the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History; provided that if the museum in turn contracts with a recipient or provider, then the qualifying standards, conditions, and other provisions of chapter 42F shall apply to the recipient or provider and the contract.

(c) Beginning with the 2021-2023 fiscal biennium and each fiscal biennium thereafter, the governor shall include in the executive budget submitted to the legislature pursuant to article VII, section 8, of the Hawaii State Constitution, no less than $2,000,000 per fiscal year as a recurring cost to be allocated to the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History."

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawai‘i the sum of $2,000,000 or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2019-2020 and the same sum or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2020-2021 to support the work of the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, including but not limited to collections care and student learning programs.

The sums appropriated shall be expended by the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 4. New statutory material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2019.

THE SENATE	S.B. NO.	699
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2019		S.D. 1
STATE OF HAWAII