STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1010

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.C.R. No. 59

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 Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.C.R. No. 59 entitled:

"SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE HAWAIIAN HOMES COMMISSION TO APPROPRIATE ONE HUNDRED PER CENT OF LEASE REVENUES FROM COMMERCIAL PROPERTY USES TO HOMELAND LOT DEVELOPMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the Hawaiian Homes Commission to appropriate one hundred per cent of lease revenues from commercial property uses to homeland lot development.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Neighborhood Place of Puna. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.

Your Committee finds that more than two thousand native Hawaiian beneficiaries have died while on the Hawaiian homes waiting list for a home land lease, and twenty-eight thousand beneficiaries currently remain on the list, half of which are over the age of sixty. Additionally, the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands recently estimated that to house all beneficiaries on the waitlist, cost projections range between $4,000,000,000 to $12,000,000,000 for infrastructure alone. Eliminating the waitlist for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has not been made a priority in past and current administrations and the State has an affirmative duty to make sufficient sums available to the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands for its administrative and operative budget. Because the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands has not sought to provide lot development on a trajectory that will extinguish their wait list, reduce the amount of lands for commercial and industrial uses, and aggressively pursue diversification of housing awards, your Committee finds it necessary to urge the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands to appropriate one hundred percent of lease revenue from commercial property uses to homeland lot development.

Your Committee has amended this measure by 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 Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of S.C.R. No. 59, as amended herein, and recommends its adoption in the form attached hereto as S.C.R. No. 59, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Hawaiian Affairs,

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MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair