STAND. COM. REP. 2499

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2789

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 Education and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 2789 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEACHER SALARIES,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate $32 million for teacher annual increment step increases.

Your Committees received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Education and Hawaii State Teachers Association. Your Committees received testimony in opposition to the measure from the Governor's Office of Collective Bargaining.

Your Committees find that annual incremental movement is a valuable tool for recruiting and retaining teachers. Funding for automatic annual incremental step movements, based on a satisfactory evaluation, is critical to keeping Hawaii's salaries competitive, thereby lessening our teacher shortage. However, the affected parties are in the process of collective bargaining negotiations. It would be premature to mandate a specific figure for annual incremental step increases until these negotiations are concluded.

Your Committees have amended the measure by eliminating any specific appropriation figure.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Education and Labor that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2789, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2789, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Education and Labor,

____________________________

BRIAN KANNO, Chair

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NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair