STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2554

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2764

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism, to which was referred S.B. No. 2764 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND TOURISM,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Transfer the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism;

(2) Repeal the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Commission; and

(3) Require the Governor to select the Executive Director of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, with the advice and consent of the Senate.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from two individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts; King Kamehameha Celebration Commission; Office of Economic Development; Donkey Mill Art Center; Arts Kauai dba Kauai Songwriters; East Hawaii Cultural Center; Garden Island Arts Council; Halau o Kahiwahiwa; Hawaii Arts Alliance; Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities; Hawaiʻi Forestry Industry Association, Hawaiʻi Health and Harm Reduction Center; Hawaiʻi Contemporary; Hula Preservation Society; HULI PAC; International Association of Art; Kahilu Theatre Foundation; Lanaʻi Arts and Culture Center; Maui Arts and Cultural Center; Molokai Arts Center, Inc.; SAG-AFTRA Hawaii Local; Volcano Art Center; West Hawaii Dance Theatre; Downtown Arts Center, Honolulu; Kahilu Theatre Foundation; Arabella Ark, Inc.; Collective HA LLC; Exhibition Grid; House of Bloom Artist Collective; Manini Gallery; Sounding Joy Music Therapy, Inc.; and over one hundred eighty-five individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Hawaii Council for the Humanities; Japanese Cultural Center of Hawaiʻi; and three individual.

Your Committees find that the Hawaii State Foundation on Culture and the Arts is currently housed within the Department of Accounting and General Services. Your Committees further find that the transition of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts is intended to increase efficiencies and effectiveness for both the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism; Creative Industries; and the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts. The measure will increase synergistic opportunities for collaboration, especially in the realm of increasing the positive economic impacts of growing the creative industries and the arts.

Your Committees note the concerns in numerous testimonies that repeal of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Commission could negatively impact funding for the Foundation and therefore finds that amendments to this measure are necessary. Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have repealed the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts Commission;

(2) Inserting an effective date of January 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2764, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2764, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Transportation and Culture and the Arts and Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism,

________________________________ LYNN DECOITE, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair