STAND. COM. REP. NO. 708

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 935

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2025

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 935 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO GOVERNMENT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to amend the law relating to government.

Prior to the hearing on this measure, your Committee posted and made available for public review a proposed S.D. 1, which amends this measure by deleting its contents and replacing it with language that amends provisions of the Employees' Retirement System by:

(1) Setting the retirement allowance for a member who has credited service as a judge after January 1, 2025, irrespective of age, at 1.75 per cent of the member's average final compensation for each year of credited service as a judge;

(2) Including sheriffs and deputies among police officers, firefighters, corrections officers, investigators of the Department of the Prosecuting Attorney, investigators of the Department of the Attorney General, narcotics enforcement investigators, and law enforcement investigations staff investigators with regard to their retirement allowance rate;

(3) Reducing from ten years to five years the minimum number of years of credited service that qualified Tier 2 Employees' Retirement System members must have in order to be eligible for vested benefit status for service retirement allowance purposes; and

(4) Increasing employer contributions to offset the resulting liability.

Your Committee has amended this measure by adopting the proposed S.D. 1.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 935, as amended herein, and recommends that it be recommitted to your Committee on Ways and Means in the form attached hereto as S.B. No.935, S.D.1, for further cosideration.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair