STAND. COM. REP. NO. 796

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1053

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1053, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to amend chapter 343, Hawaii Revised Statutes, relating to environmental impact statements, to allow a state or county agency that is proposing an action involving the use of state or county lands to designate the person who is the actual proposed user of the lands to prepare and fund the environmental assessment and, if necessary, an environmental impact statement.

 

     Your Committee has received one written comment on this measure.  The written comment may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     The process of preparing, reviewing, and amending environmental assessments and environmental impact statements is very time-consuming and costly.  In many instances where a state or county agency is proposing the use of state or county lands, the actual proposed end-user of the state or county lands is an entity other than a state or county agency.  Your Committee believes that, in these cases, it is only fair and equitable that the ultimate beneficiary of the use of the state or county lands bear that costs of preparing, reviewing, and amending any environmental assessment or environmental impact statement required by the proposed action.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Making technical nonsubstantive for the purposes of clarity and consistency; and

 

     (2)  Amending the effective date to July 1, 2050, to allow further discussion of this measure.

 

     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. 1053, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1053, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

____________________________

DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair