STAND. COM. REP. NO.  599

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2013

 

RE:   H.B. No. 353

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Joseph M. Souki

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Seventh State Legislature

Regular Session of 2013

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 353 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to fund efforts to control and mitigate the damage caused by the coffee berry borer to coffee farms in the State.

 

     More specifically, this measure appropriates out of the agricultural development and food security special fund:

 

(1)  $500,000 to the United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center; and

 

(2)  $330,000 to the Coffee Berry Borer Task Force.  

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Farmers Union United, Kona Coffee Farmers Association, Wakefield Coffee, Fire Island Coffee, Kona Coffee Council, ANKK Ohana Farms/Kona King Coffee, Konaloha Farms, Mokulele Farm, Kona Quality Coffee, Cornwell Coffee, Kona Coffee Farmers Association, Molokai Farm Bureau, Second City Coffee, LLC, Ihilani Coffee Company, Mauka Meadows, DBA Dumaguin Farm, Hawaii Farmers United-Kona Chapter, Kona Essence, North Shore Farms, LLC, Blue Moon Kona Coffee, Hoshide Coffee, LLC/Hoshide Farms, Onouli Farms, LLC, Maigret Family Farm, Paradise Found Farm, Greenwell Farms, Inc., and fifty-one individuals.

 

     Written comments were submitted by two individuals.

 

     Your Committee finds that coffee is an important agricultural product in the State and that the coffee berry borer is an invasive species that has greatly reduced the yield of coffee crops from the Kona region and has the potential to adversely affect the coffee in other regions of the State.  Funding efforts to control the damage from the infestation are critical to ensure the survival of the coffee farms in the State.

 

     Your Committee has amended the measure by:

 

(1)  Deleting the appropriation to the United States Pacific Basin Agricultural Research Center;

 

(2)  Changing the funding source for the appropriation to the Coffee Berry Borer Task Force to the general revenues of the State and changing the amount appropriated to $300,000;

 

(3)  Specifying that funds shall not be expended unless matched by not less than $200,000 from private or other government sources;

 

(4)  Changing the fiscal year for the appropriation to 2014-2015;

 

(5)  Changing the expending agency to the Department of Agriculture;

 

(6)  Clarifying that the moneys are appropriated as a grant pursuant to 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes;

 

(7)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2030, to encourage further discussion of the measure; and

 

(8)  Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

 

     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. 353, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 353, H.D. 1, and be placed on the calendar for Third Reading.

 

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

 

 

 

 

____________________________

SYLVIA LUKE, Chair