STAND. COM. REP. 2552

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2782

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 2782 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE FUNDING OF A HABITAT CONSERVATION PLAN,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide the Department of Land and Natural Resources with the same financial flexibility afforded through federal guidelines regarding habitat conservation plans.

Testimony in support of the measure was submitted by the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Hawaii Leeward Planning Conference, The Nature Conservancy, and Koa Timber, Inc.

Your Committees find that the current state financial requirements for landowners seeking approval for a habitat conservation plan is too burdensome for small companies and individual property owners. Your Committees believe that the financial flexibility provided by this measure will encourage greater participation by private landowners in establishing habitat conservation plans. Your Committees further believe the moneys derived from implementing or securing funding for habitat conservation plans should be exempted from central services fees and administrative expenses to maximize the funds available to endangered species programs.

Accordingly, your Committees have amended the measure by exempting moneys generated by implementing or securing funding for habitat conservation plans from central services fees and administrative expenses and amending the section establishing the endangered species trust fund to allow those moneys to be deposited into that fund.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Energy and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2782, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2782, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Agriculture and Energy and Environment,

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J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair

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LORRAINE R. INOUYE, Chair