STAND. COM. REP. NO.214

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: H.B. No. 143

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Legislative Management, to which was referred H.B. No. 143 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE LEGISLATURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to increase the legislator's per diem allowance to:

(1) $120 per day for intrastate travel;

(2) Match the maximum travel per diem allowance set by the General Services Administration for travel to the continental United States; and

(3) Match the maximum travel per diem allowance for foreign areas pursuant to section 925, a supplement to the Department of State Standardized Regulations.

The Representative of the 8th District testified in support of this measure.

Your Committee has amended this bill by tying the legislative per diem amount for intrastate travel to two-thirds of the General Services Administration rate for Hawaii.

The Attorney General (AG) has said that tying fiscal actions to a federal standard may be unconstitutional in certain situations. For example, if tied into income taxation, this would be unconstitutional. However, your Committee is unclear as to what situations the AG was referring to. Your Committee would like the Committee on Finance to determine whether tying the per diem amount to the federal standard is constitutional.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Legislative Management that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 143, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 143, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Legislative Management,

____________________________

NATHAN SUZUKI, Chair