THE SENATE	S.C.R. NO.	57
THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2020
STATE OF HAWAII

SENATE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

URGING THE STATE OF HAWAI‘I TO PROVIDE NATIVE HAWAIIANS WITH THEIR FAIR SHARE OF THE PUBLIC LAND TRUST REVENUE.

WHEREAS, native Hawaiians are the indigenous people of the Hawaiian archipelago and have never given up their inherent right of self-determination nor their claims and rights to their land; and

WHEREAS, after the illegal overthrow of Queen Lili‘uokalani's government and the establishment of the Republic of Hawai‘i in 1894, the republic claimed the crown lands and merged the government and crown lands into the "public lands" through the 1895 Land Act; and

WHEREAS, in 1898, the Republic of Hawai‘i transferred over 1.8 million acres of government and crown lands to the United States under the Newslands Joint Resolution; and

WHEREAS, when Hawai‘i became a state in 1959, most government and crown lands, including those lands included as part of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, were transferred to the State of Hawai‘i, however the United States retained use and control of over 375,000 acres of land; and

WHEREAS, as part of the incorporation of Hawai‘i as a State of the Union, in section 5(f) of the Admissions Act the State of Hawai‘i's public trust responsibilities to native Hawaiians is clarified whereby "[t]he lands granted to the State of Hawaii...shall be held by said State as a public trust for the support of...native Hawaiians"; and

WHEREAS, in 1978, the people of Hawai‘i overwhelmingly ratified amendments to the Hawaii State Constitution including article XII, section 4, that confirmed the State's public trust responsibilities, section 5 that established the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA), and section 6 which requires the OHA Trustees to manage and administer income and proceeds from a variety of sources, including a "pro rata portion" of the public land trust; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii State Constitution does not define what percentage of the public land trust income and proceeds OHA should receive on behalf of native Hawaiians because that determination was left to the Legislature; and

WHEREAS, the Legislature determined that native Hawaiians should get at least twenty percent of the public land trust revenue (section 10-13.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes); and

WHEREAS, in a joint resolution adopted by the 103rd Congress of the United States ("Congress"), signed into law as Public Law 103-150, November 23, 1993, Congress apologized to native Hawaiians on behalf of the United States for the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawai‘i; and

WHEREAS, Act 178, Session Laws of Hawaii 2006, temporarily established OHA's pro rata share of the income and proceeds of the public land trust for the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians at $15,100,000 annually, and required state agencies to report public land trust revenues to the Legislature each year; and

WHEREAS, based on the annual accounting of the amounts derived from the public trust and additional research commissioned by OHA of receipts from the public land trust in fiscal year 2015-2016, OHA has determined the minimum amount of applicable total gross public land trust receipts to be at least $174,816,220 in fiscal year 2015-2016, for undisputed revenues and twenty percent of that income is $34,963,244; and

WHEREAS, the Hawaii Supreme Court has repeatedly held that the Legislature has a constitutional obligation to clarify the pro rata portion of revenues derived from the public land trust to which OHA is entitled to for the benefit of native Hawaiians under article XII, sections 4 and 6 of the Hawaii State Constitution; and

WHEREAS, the pro rata share owed to native Hawaiians from the public land trust revenue is not a handout, a race base benefit, nor a privilege, but is their fair share of the trust lands that they collectively hold claim over and rights as recognized by the state and federal governments; and

WHEREAS, the pro rata share owed is indisputably at least twenty percent of the total revenues of the public land trust which is estimated to be at least $34,963,244 as of fiscal year 2015-2016; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the Senate of the Thirtieth Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2020, the House of Representatives concurring, that the State is urged to provide native Hawaiians with their fair share of the public land trust revenue; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Governor, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, and Mayors of all counties.

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Native Hawaiians; Public Land Trust Revenue