STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1552

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 54

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2021

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 54, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE STATE BUDGET,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for deposit into the emergency and budget reserve fund established pursuant to section 328L-3, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Kauai Watershed Alliance and Ben Dyre Family Limited Partnership.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that due to the ongoing economic impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic, moneys from the emergency and budget reserve fund were transferred out of the fund, causing the fund balance to decrease from $378,237,160 on June 30, 2019, to $58,880,670 on June 30, 2020. Accordingly, your Committee finds that appropriating moneys from the general fund will help to replenish the balance of the emergency and budget reserve fund.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

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 H.B. No. 54, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 54, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

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

________________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair