STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1072

                                 Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                   , 1999

                                 RE: H.B. No. 179
                                     H.D. 2




Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say
Speaker, House of Representatives
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No.
179, H.D. 1, entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURAL LANDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to establish a commission to
identify and classify lands in Hawaii that are of agricultural
importance.

     The Department of Agriculture, the Department of Land and
Natural Resources, the Land Use Commission, the Department of
Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, the Office of
Hawaiian Affairs, the Hawaii Farm Bureau, and the Estate of James
Campbell testified in support of the bill.  The Land Use Research
Foundation of Hawaii commented on the measure.

     Your Committee has amended the bill by:

     (1)  Expanding the options for the classification systems
          that the commission may use from the Agricultural Lands
          of Importance to the State of Hawaii (ALISH)
          classification system to any one or more of the rating
          systems described in the 1986 report by the State of
          Hawaii Land Evaluation and Site Assessment (LESA)
          Commission; 

     (2)  Deleting specific criteria for the three classes into
          which the commission shall categorize important
          agricultural land;


 
                                 STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1072
                                 Page 2

 
     (3)  Deleting the requirement that the commission classify
          as prime agricultural land those lands identified as
          national prime farm land by the U.S. Department of
          Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Services,
          Honolulu, Hawaii; and

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive revisions for style
          and clarity.

     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 H.B. No.
179, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third
Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 179, H.D. 2.

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



                                   ______________________________
                                   DWIGHT Y. TAKAMINE, Chair