STAND. COM. REP. NO. 408

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 396

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Labor and Technology and Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 396 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMUTING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Director of Human Resources Development, in consultation with the Hawaii Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, State Energy Office, and Department of Accounting and General Services, to develop and implement a comprehensive Commuting Choice Benefit Program for all state employees regardless of mode of transportation; and

(2) Require a report to the Legislature.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, Hawaii State Energy Office, Oahu Metropolitan Planning Organization, Ulupono Initiative, Coalition Earth, and one individual.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Human Resources Development, Department of Accounting and General Services, and one individual.

Your Committees find that subsidizing parking without also offering incentives for alternative modes of commuting for state employees contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and traffic congestion. Not only is this policy contrary to the State's decarbonization goals, but it is also inequitable to state employees utilizing alternative transportation without any comparable benefit. This measure offers consistency with the State's long-term goals by establishing a comprehensive Commuting Choice Benefit Program to disincentivize the use of single-occupancy vehicles.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting a blank appropriation amount for the Department of Human Resources Development to develop and implement the comprehensive Commuting Choice Benefit Program;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 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 Labor and Technology and Transportation and Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 396, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 396, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Labor and Technology and Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair

________________________________ HENRY J.C. AQUINO, Chair