STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2045

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2122

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2122 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INCREASING THE OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS' PRO RATA SHARE OF THE PUBLIC LAND TRUST,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to increase the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' pro rata share of the monies derived from the public land trust and to transfer monies to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for income and proceeds due from the use of the public land trust lands between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2022, that was misallocated, underreported, or underpaid to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander COVID-19 Hawaii Response, Recovery, and Resilience Team; Kupuna for the Mo‘opuna; and two individuals. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Center for Hawaiian Sovereignty Studies, and one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture, Hawaii Health Systems Corporation, Department of the Attorney General, and Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that there is a constitutional obligation for the State to provide a sufficient sum of income and proceeds as the pro rata share of the public land trust for the betterment of the conditions of native Hawaiians. Act 178, Session Laws of Hawaii 2006 (Act 178), put in place annual payments of $15,100,000 from the pro rata portion of the public land trust to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs in acknowledgment of the State's constitutional obligation. However, Act 178 was passed with the intention that it would be an interim measure until the Legislature could further assess the complexities of the issue, including in part gathering information on revenue-generating public trust lands and amounts derived from those lands.

Your Committee finds that in a 2015-2016 financial review initiated by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, the minimum amount of total gross receipts from sources that the Office of Hawaiian Affairs has historically claimed was approximately $394,322,163 in the fiscal year 2015-2016. Twenty percent of this amount is approximately $78,900,000. Therefore, this measure seeks to increase the amount of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' annual share of the income and proceeds of the public land trust beginning in fiscal year 2022-2023. Furthermore, an undecided sum of monies shall be transferred to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for income and proceeds due from the use of the public land trust lands between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2022, that was misallocated, underreported, or underpaid to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs while requiring the continued annual accounting of all receipts from lands described in section 5(f) of the Admission Act.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting $78,900,000 and inserting an unspecified amount as the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' annual share of the income and proceeds of the public land trust beginning in fiscal year 2022-2023;

(2) Deleting $638,000,000 and inserting an unspecified amount as the sum to be transferred to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs for income and proceeds due from the use of the public land trust lands between July 1, 2012, and June 30, 2022, that was misallocated, underreported, or underpaid to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; and

(3) 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 is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2122, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2122, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

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

________________________________

MAILE S.L. SHIMABUKURO, Chair