STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2886

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2836

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2006

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2836, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE STATE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES IMPROVEMENT FUND,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to address the repair and maintenance backlog of the Department of Education.

Your Committee finds that the state educational facilities improvement special fund is used to plan, design, construct, maintain, and acquire lands for public school facilities. The special fund, however, is currently overwhelmed with repair project requests. Years of under-funding maintenance projects has culminated in a massive school repair and renovation crisis.

This bill would allow the Department of Education to catch-up with its backlog to provide a safe and comfortable learning environment for students, faculty, and staff.

Your Committee has amended the bill by deleting the proposed amendments and instead providing an unspecified amount to serve as a base to determine the amount of general excise tax revenues that are deposited into the State Educational Facilities Improvement Special Fund under section 237-31(1), Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to general excise tax remittances.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2836, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2836, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

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BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair