STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1945

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2025

RE: S.B. No. 933

S.D. 2

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred S.B. No. 933, S.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE STATE BUDGET,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide one-time nonrecurring grants to organizations that provide critical services in the public interest and for the public's health, safety, and general welfare, in accordance with chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaiʻi State Energy Office; Hawaiʻi Youth Services Network; Women Organizing for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management; Responsive Caregivers of Hawaii; Aloha United Way; Full Life; Haleakalā Conservancy; Neighborhood Place of Puna; Volunteer Legal Services Hawaiʻi; Catholic Charities Hawaiʻi; Child & Family Service; Legal Aid Society of Hawaiʻi; Hawaiʻi True Cost Coalition; The Legal Clinic; Hawaiʻi Public Health Institute; Friends of Amy B. H. Greenwell Ethnobotanical Garden; Easterseals Hawaii; Hawaiʻi Community Foundation; Hawaiʻi Meals on Wheels; Parents and Children Together; and eight individuals. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Judiciary; Spirit Horse Ranch, Inc.; Hawaiʻi State Rural Health Association; What Makes You Feel Beautiful; Hawaiʻi Foodbank; Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council; African American Diversity Cultural Center Hawaii; Goodwill Hawaii; Hawaiʻi State Coalition Against Domestic Violence; Donkey Mill Art Center; Hawaiʻi Council for the Humanities; Hawaiʻi Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations, including a sign-on letter from numerous community-based organizations; Hawaiʻi Farmers Union; Hawaiian Humane Society; The Institute for Human Services, Inc.; Kumukahi Health + Wellness; Kaʻala Farm Inc.; and five individuals.

Your Committee finds that the federal funding freeze imposed by the United States Office of Management and Budget may have detrimental effects on Hawaii's nonprofit sector, which provides critical services in health and human services. Without assistance from the federal government, Hawaii's federally qualified health centers as well as programs that provide child care, social services, subsidized housing, and homeless services will see a significant drop in funding. Therefore, your Committee finds that the funds appropriated through this measure are necessary to ensure that crucial public services are maintained for the benefit of the State's residents.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Changing its effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) 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 Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 933, S.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 933, S.D. 2, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

____________________________

KYLE T. YAMASHITA, Chair