STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2020

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2688

       H.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2688, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS TO PROVIDE FOR THE EXPENSES OF THE LEGISLATURE, THE AUDITOR, THE LEGISLATIVE REFERENCE BUREAU, AND THE OMBUDSMAN,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to provide for the expenses of the Legislature and its service agencies.

 

     More specifically, this measure provides for the expenses of the Legislature, Office of the Auditor, Hawaii State Ethics Commission, Office of the Ombudsman, Legislative Reference Bureau, and the legislative broadcast program.  The appropriation for the Legislative Reference Bureau includes an appropriation of $300,000 for the Legislative Reference Bureau to contract with the University of Hawaii to conduct a study of the State's environmental review process.

 

     Your Committee intends that the Legislative Reference Bureau contract with the University of Hawaii through the Research Corporation of the University of Hawaii and that the study be led by the University of Hawaii at Manoa Department of Urban and Regional Planning, in partnership with the Environmental Center and the Environmental Law Program at the William S. Richardson School of Law.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of the Auditor, the Legislative Reference Bureau, the Hawaii State Ethics Commission, and the Ombudsman.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure appropriates sufficient funds to support the operations of the Legislature and its services agencies.

 

     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 H.B. No. 2688, H.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

ROSALYN H. BAKER, Chair