STAND. COM. REP. NO.  920

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2007

 

RE:   H.B. No. 1338

      H.D. 2

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2007

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1338, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING EMERGENCY APPROPRIATIONS FOR THE DIVISION OF CONSUMER ADVOCACY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to appropriate emergency funding to the Department of Consumer Advocacy (Consumer Advocate) of the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs to investigate the power outages that occurred on October 15, 2006, on the islands of Oahu, Maui, and Hawaii.

 

     Pursuant to the requirements set forth in Article VII, Section 9, of the Hawaii State Constitution, the Governor, in her Governor's Message No. 232 to the Legislature, requested immediate consideration and passage of this bill by the Legislature citing an existing critical funding shortage.

 

     The Consumer Advocate and Public Utilities Commission testified in support of this bill.

 

     Your Committee has amended this bill by:

 

     (1)  Appropriating $100,000 from the Public Utilities                   Commission Special Fund into the Compliance Resolution        Fund (CRF); and

 

     (2)  Appropriating $100,000 out of the CRF to conduct the               investigation.

 

     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. 1338, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1338, H.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

 

____________________________

MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair