HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.C.R. NO.

223

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2006

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 
   


HOUSE CONCURRENT

RESOLUTION

 

REQUESTING THE AUDITOR TO conduct aN audit to determine whether funds allocated FROM the Hawaii Tobacco Settlement Special Fund to the University Revenue-Undertakings Fund have been appropriately expended.

 

 

WHEREAS, on November 23, 1998, leading United States tobacco manufacturers entered into a settlement agreement, entitled the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, with forty-six states, including Hawaii. In consideration for a release of past, present, and certain future claims against them, the agreement obligates these manufacturers to pay substantial sums to the settling states (tied in part to the volume of tobacco product sales). The Attorney General of each state is responsible for enforcing the provisions of the agreement; and

WHEREAS, according to the State Attorney General, a total of $250,983,673.98 in payments has been made to Hawaii through fiscal year 2004-2005 and deposited into the Hawaii tobacco settlement special fund under section 328L-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to section 328L-2(b)(4), Hawaii Revised Statutes, twenty-eight per cent of all tobacco settlement moneys in the Hawaii tobacco settlement special fund are to be allocated and appropriated into the University revenue-undertakings fund, as established in section 306-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

WHEREAS, each year, these allocated moneys are to be applied by the University of Hawaii solely to the payment of the principal of and interest on, and to generate required coverage, if any, for revenue bonds issued by the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii to finance the cost of construction of a University Health and Wellness Center, including a new medical school facility, to be situated on the island of Oahu, for the succeeding fiscal year; and

WHEREAS, any funds in excess of the amount required to pay principal of and interest on, and to generate required coverage, if any, for those revenue bonds in any fiscal year are to be transferred to the emergency and budget reserve fund and to the Hawaii tobacco prevention and control trust fund in the succeeding fiscal year, at a proportion of eighty per cent and twenty per cent, respectively; and

WHEREAS, it is in the public interest to ensure that funds allocated from the Hawaii tobacco settlement special fund to the university revenue-undertakings fund have been appropriately expended; now, therefore,

BE IT RESOLVED by the House of Representatives of the Twenty-third Legislature of the State of Hawaii, Regular Session of 2006, the Senate concurring, that the Auditor is requested to conduct an audit to determine whether funds allocated from the Hawaii tobacco settlement special fund under section 328L-2, Hawaii Revised Statutes, to the university revenue-undertakings fund under section 306-10, Hawaii Revised Statutes, have been appropriately expended according to section 328L-2(b)(4), Hawaii Revised Statutes; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to include in the audit a detailed accounting of all amounts allocated into the university revenue-undertakings fund from the Hawaii tobacco settlement special fund and all amounts expended from the university revenue-undertaking fund attributed to the purpose stipulated in section 328L-2(b)(4), Hawaii Revised Statutes, including expenditures for direct services to individuals, if any are found; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Auditor is requested to submit findings and recommendations, including any necessary proposed legislation, to the Legislature no later than twenty days prior to the convening of the Regular Session of 2007; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that certified copies of this Concurrent Resolution be transmitted to the Auditor, the Director of Health, the President of the University of Hawaii, and the Chairperson of the Board of Regents of the University of Hawaii.

 

 

 

OFFERED BY:

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Report Title:

Audit; Use of Tobacco Settlement Funds for UH Medical School