Report Title:

Time Dollar Pilot Project; Appropriations

Description:

Establishes a three-year service credit exchange pilot project within the executive office on aging. Appropriates funds for training and program operations.

THE SENATE

S.B. NO.

1021

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

relating to human services.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. Each year, the State is asked to fund numerous social services programs, including those related to disabled and elder care, housing and homeless assistance, substance abuse services, chore services, legal services, youth programs, day care, and other health and human service needs. With limited funds, government alone cannot meet all the needs of Hawaii's communities and its citizens, especially in a state that faces an increasingly aging population. According to a report by the department of business, economic development, and tourism entitled Population and Economic Projections for the State of Hawaii to 2030, twenty-one per cent of Hawaii's population, excluding military personnel and their dependents, is projected to be age sixty-five and over by the year 2030, an increase of almost seven per cent from 2000 figures. The legislature finds that creative and innovative solutions are needed to meet the State's critical social needs while building stronger, more self-sufficient, and more compassionate communities. The legislature further finds that one solution may lie in the creation of a service credit exchange, also known as "Time Banking", that utilizes currency known as "Time Dollars".

According to the organization Time Dollar USA, the concept of Time Dollars was first proposed in the 1980s as a solution to massive cuts in government spending on social welfare. Under a system of service credit exchange, exchange members provide needed services to other members while earning Time Dollar currency at the rate of one Time Dollar per hour spent in service, to be used for future purchases of services from fellow exchange members. Alternatively, Time Dollars can be donated to or earned on behalf of others, such as in the case of an elderly or disabled person who is unable to perform services. Exchanges are scheduled and recorded by using specially designed accounting software.

Time Dollars are typically used to trade the kind of favors that members of families and communities have traditionally lent and owed, such as transportation, respite care, home repairs, grocery shopping, and child care. However, Time Banking differs from bartering in that services are valued equally, i.e., one hour of time earns one Time Dollar regardless of the service provided, and the Internal Revenue Service has determined that Time Dollars are not taxable. Time Banking is also distinguished from pure volunteerism because exchange members are both the providers and the recipients of services.

The Time Banking concept has been successfully implemented in programs throughout the United States and the world. Among the former, the Mesa County Department of Human Services in Arizona operates the S.O.S. (Supporting Our Seniors) program under which volunteers earn service credits by providing services to seniors, such as transportation, friendly visiting, phone calls, minor household management and repairs, light housekeeping, shopping, yard work, and respite care.

Another one of the numerous successful Time Banking programs, the Maine Time Dollar Network (MTDN), has grown from a membership of ninety in 1998, who exchanged 1,540 hours of services, to a statewide membership of just under 1,000 in 2003 that exchanged 25,000 hours of services. During this five-year period, MTDN members exchanged over 50,000 hours of services with a market economy value of over $800,000 (based on the United Way's average volunteer hour valuation of $16.07).

The legislature further finds that the use of Time Banking in Hawaii can facilitate the provision of social services to those in need while minimizing the use of tax dollars, promoting volunteerism, and strengthening and empowering our communities. However, key to the success of a Time Dollar program in Hawaii is providing technical expertise and training in developing a Time Dollar system for administrators and stakeholders, and providing funding for a minimum of three years to allow the program sufficient time to be properly developed and established.

The purpose of this Act is to establish and fund the Hawaii state time dollar pilot project within the executive office on aging of the department of health, and to appropriate funds for training and program operations.

SECTION 2. There is established the Hawaii state time dollar pilot project within the department of health, executive office on aging. The pilot project shall develop and establish service credit exchange programs in two sites, one urban and one rural, and shall provide technical training for the development of these programs. The pilot project may contract with tax-exempt organizations certified under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, to implement the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 3. There is appropriated out of the general revenues of the State of Hawaii:

(1) The sum of $6,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, to provide technical training and assistance in the development of the service credit exchange programs; and

(2) The sum of $130,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary for fiscal year 2005-2006, for the expenses and operations of the Hawaii state time dollar pilot project.

SECTION 4. The sums appropriated shall be expended by the department of health for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. The executive office on aging shall submit to the legislature a progress report regarding the pilot project no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the 2006, 2007, and 2008 regular sessions.

SECTION 6. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005, and shall be repealed on June 30, 2008.

INTRODUCED BY:

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