STAND. COM. REP. NO.396

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 366

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 366 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT AUTHORIZING THE ISSUANCE OF GENERAL OBLIGATION BONDS AND MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR PLANS, DESIGN, AND CONSTRUCTION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF HAWAII-WEST OAHU CAMPUS FACILITIES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds and appropriate funds for plans, design, and construction of the University of Hawaii (UH)– West Oahu Campus facilities.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the UH at Manoa, the UH – West Oahu, and the Estate of James Campbell.

Your Committee finds that the UH – West Oahu campus occupies a unique niche within the UH system. Although currently the campus only serves upper division students, once new facilities are constructed it will be a full four-year school.

While Native Hawaiians and Filipinos are the most underrepresented groups in our State's colleges, your Committee finds that fourteen per cent of the student population at UH – West Oahu is Filipino, and eighteen per cent is Native Hawaiian.

Your Committee further finds that the West Oahu campus provides a higher education alternative for leeward and central Oahu residents, so that these students are not forced to commute to Manoa. As part of an overall strategy to reduce our reliance on the Honolulu area as the sole center of jobs and education on Oahu, your Committee supports the construction of new facilities for the UH – West Oahu campus.

Your Committee has amended this measure to insert more accurate figures regarding the cost for construction of new facilities. As provided by the UH, the facilities should cost a total of $150,600,000 for the three phases of the project.

In addition, while fully supporting a preference for state resident contractors, your Committee has amended this language to provide the preference to contractors whose offers are not more than seven per cent higher than competing offerors. Your Committee has also inserted language to ensure that federal funds are not jeopardized by the granting of a state resident preference.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 366, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 366, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair