STAND. COM. REP. NO. 988

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 330

H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 330 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to, among other things:

(1) Promote fiscal accountability by requiring the Agribusiness Development Corporation (ADC) to contract with a financial services institution to provide lease management services for leases of agricultural land under the ADC's control;

(2) Require ADC to obtain agricultural lands located in Waialua, Oahu, and owned by the Galbraith Estate, with revenues derived through the issuance of revenue bonds; and

(3) Establish that agricultural leases on lands in central Oahu obtained under this bill shall be for at least 55 years.

The Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation and a concerned individual supported this bill. The Hawaii Agriculture Research Center supported the intent of this measure. ADC offered comments.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Authorizing, rather than requiring, ADC to contract with a financial services institution to provide lease management services for leases of agricultural land under the ADC's control;

(2) Clarifying the definition of "lease management services" to include the collection of lease rent and any other moneys owed to the ADC related to the lease of agricultural land under its control;

(3) Correcting a drafting oversight by clarifying that ADC shall work toward obtaining commitments from landowners in the leeward and central districts of Oahu that their agricultural leases shall not be amended or revoked to allow for a non-agricultural use of such land; and

(4) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for style, clarity, and consistency

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 330, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 330, H.D. 1.

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

 

____________________________

DWIGHT TAKAMINE, Chair