STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2556

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3222

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 Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 3222 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE CREATIVE WORKFORCE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish and appropriate funds for the Creative Arts Workforce Grant Program within the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts to award grants to individuals and organizations that promote employment opportunities for creative workers throughout the State.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Donkey Mill Art Center. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism and its Creative Industries Division; and Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that section 9-3(7)(B), Hawaii Revised Statutes, requires the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts to disburse and allocate funds appropriated by the legislature for the promotion and furtherance of culture and the arts and history and the humanities through its grant programs such as the Biennium Grant Program, governed by part II of chapter 9, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee notes the testimony of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, raising concerns over creation of a complex new grant structure in this measure and stating that an appropriation to its Biennium Grant Program for the purpose of awarding grants to individuals and organizations that promote employment opportunities for creative workers throughout the State would serve the same purpose.

Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by deleting its contents and inserting language that appropriates from state general funds $200,000 for fiscal year 2022-2023 to fund the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Biennium Grants Program for the awarding of grants to individuals and organizations that promote employment opportunities for creative workers throughout the State.

Your Committee has reviewed the testimony of the Department of Budget and Finance expressing concerns regarding this measure's possible effect on the State's obligation to adhere to the maintenance of effort requirements as a recipient of Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief funds under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Recovery Plan Act of 2021. Your Committee finds that this issue raises concerns that merit further consideration and respectfully requests that your Committee on Ways and Means further examine those issues and concerns raised by the testimony.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3222, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3222, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts,

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BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair