STAND. COM. REP. NO. 682

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: H.B. No. 925

H.D. 2

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Culture & Arts, to which was referred H.B. No. 925, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE ARTS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to require the Comptroller to establish a separate Arts Fees Account within the Works of Art Special Fund to be funded by one percent of all ticket sales from concerts held at state venues.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the State Foundation of Culture and Arts. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of the Attorney General and Department of Budget and Finance.

Your Committee finds that it is important to expand access to arts and culture across the State to help bring joy and inspiration to all people. Your Committee finds that the performing arts have long been underfunded and often rely on community efforts for support. Your Committee believes that this measure can support performing arts through a mechanism similar to the existing percent-for-art law but not based on a percentage of bond-financed appropriations for capital improvement projects.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting legislative findings to clarify that the intent of this measure is to expand access to vital arts and culture opportunities across the State;

(2) Establishing a separate Performing Arts Special Fund, rather than the Arts Fees Account within the Works of Art Special Fund, for collections of the one percent of ticket sales from concerts held at state venues, and adding a definition for the term "concerts";

(3) Authorizing the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts to expend monies from the Performing Arts Special Fund for the coordination, planning, promotion, marketing, and execution of performing arts events and defining the term "performing arts"; and

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

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Culture & Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 925, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 925, H.D. 2, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Culture & Arts,

____________________________

JEANNE KAPELA, Chair