STAND. COM. REP. NO. 630

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1236

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing, Technology and the Arts, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 1236 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO FIBER OPTICS,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to require the installation of fiber optic cable systems in new single-family, duplex, condominium, and apartment dwellings by precluding the issuance of a building permit unless the new single-family, duplex, condominium, or apartment dwelling includes a fiber optic cable system that meets requirements to be established by rule.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Information Management and Technology, Hawaiian Telcom, and one individual.  Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs and the Building Industry Association of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committees find that it is important to promote the development and expansion of advanced broadband systems in Hawaii because they enhance disaster management capabilities, emergency services, information access, and public communication and drive opportunities for business, education, and health care.  Your Committees also believe that the use of incentives may help in advancing the development and expansion of broadband systems.  Your Committees are concerned, however, about placing an undue financial burden on homeowners who may never need or be able to use broadband systems or who may live in areas better served by technologies other than broadband systems.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Making the measure applicable to new condominiums subject to chapter 514B, Hawaii Revised Statutes, and new planned communities, rather than to new single-family, duplex, condominium, or apartment dwellings; and

 

     (2)  Changing the effective date to January 1, 2018, to encourage further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing, Technology and the Arts, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1236, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1236, S.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development, Government Operations and Housing, Technology and the Arts, and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

 

____________________________

GLENN WAKAI, Chair

 

____________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair

 

 

____________________________

WILL ESPERO, Chair