STAND. COM. REP. NO. 804

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 903

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 903, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HAWAIIAN AFFAIRS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Establish in the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, for administrative purposes only, a claims review working group;

(2) Require a report to the Legislature;

(3) Repeal the working group established pursuant to Act 226, Session Laws of Hawaii 2022; and

(4) Appropriate funds.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.

Your Committees find that any settlement valuation between the State and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs must be accurate, data-driven, and informed by due diligence, ensuring the State has the proper systems in place to accurately identify and calculate revenues from the public land trust. Currently, state and county agencies use different formulas to identify public trust lands and calculate public land trust revenues, leading to significant undercounting of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs' public land trust revenue share. This measure will establish a working group to determine the process by which the Office of Hawaiian Affairs may negotiate a settlement with the State and ensure that any settlement between the State and Office of Hawaiian Affairs is accurate and just.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting an effective date of June 30, 2059, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) 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 Hawaiian Affairs and Ways and Means that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 903, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 903, S.D. 2, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Hawaiian Affairs and Ways and Means,

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

________________________________ HERBERT M. RICHARDS, III, Chair