STAND. COM. REP. NO. 69

                                   Honolulu, Hawaii
                                                     , 1999

                                   RE:  S.B. No. 655
                                        S.D. 1




Honorable Norman Mizuguchi
President of the Senate
Twentieth State Legislature
Regular Session of 1999
State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Economic Development, to which was
referred S.B. No. 655 entitled: 

     "A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE VISITOR
     ALOHA SOCIETY OF HAWAII,"

begs leave to report as follows:
     
     The purpose of this measure is to make an appropriation for
the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii (VASH).

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure
from the Prosecuting Attorney of the City and County of Honolulu,
the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, the Visitor Aloha Society of
Kauai, Inc., the Hawaii Tours and Activities Association, the
Retail Merchants of Hawai`i, Outrigger Hotels & Resorts, Trade
West, Inc., and one individual.  The Hawaii Tourism Authority
submitted comments.

     Your Committee finds that VASH plays an important role in
Hawaii's tourism industry, by assisting and providing "aloha
service" to visitors who are victims of crime and other
adversities during their stay in the islands.  In the past year,
VASH helped more than six hundred traumatized visitors on Oahu,
and more than three hundred on Kauai, through a network of
committed volunteers.

     Your Committee believes that without the aloha of this
nonprofit organization, these visitors would have gone home angry
and disappointed and shared this disappointment to the detriment

 
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                                   STAND. COM. REP. NO. 69
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of Hawaii and its people.  Your Committee is in strong support of
the work of VASH and its value to our tourism industry.  Your
Committee has amended this measure to delete the specific dollar
amount requested, and to make technical, nonsubstantive
amendments.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your
Committee on Economic Development that is attached to this
report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose
of S.B. No. 655, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass
Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 655,
S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

                                   Respectfully submitted on
                                   behalf of the members of the
                                   Committee on Economic
                                   Development,



                                   ______________________________
                                   LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair

 
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