STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3517

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 2037

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2016

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 2037, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE WORLD CONSERVATION CONGRESS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Land and Natural Resources to host the International Union for Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress meeting at the Hawaii Convention Center on September 1 to 10, 2016.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Aha Moku Advisory Committee, Conservation Council for Hawaii, The Nature Conservancy, Ulupono Initiative, and one individual.

 

     As this is the first time that the World Conservation Congress will convene in the United States, your Committee recognizes that this meeting offers an exceptional opportunity for the United States to showcase and share with the world Hawaii's unique environmental and natural resources.  Your Committee finds that the meeting will enhance natural resource conservation in Hawaii and the continental United States, the Asia-Pacific Region, and internationally. 

 

     Your Committee further finds that the meeting will highlight and promote Hawaii's sustainability goals outlined in the Aloha+ Challenge, as well sustainable ecotourism and conservation leadership.  Your Committee believes that, in addition to supporting Hawaii's environment and quality of life, hosting the meeting will generate economic benefits, such as visitor spending, tax revenues, potential federal and international grant funding, and research opportunities, and will help establish Hawaii as a destination for regional and global meetings.

 

     Your Committee notes that the administration has requested $4,000,000 in state funds be included in the budget bill to host the meeting.  Your Committee requests that local organizers of the World Conservation Congress meeting submit periodic updates to the Legislature on the progress of their fundraising efforts to support holding the meeting in Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion of the 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 H.B. No. 2037, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2037, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair