Report Title:

Office of Hawaiian Home Lands

 

Description:

Provides for a constitutional amendment to create the Office of Hawaiian Home Lands as a political subdivision.

 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

455

TWENTY-FIRST LEGISLATURE, 2001

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

pROPOSING AN AMENDMENT TO ARTICLE XII OF THE CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF HAWAII TO ESTABLISH AN OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS.

 

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that too many of the native Hawaiian beneficiaries of the Hawaiian Homes Commission Act, 1920, as amended (HHCA), have been denied the quality of life and the economic opportunities expressed in the principal purposes of the HHCA including:

(1) Establishing a permanent land base for the benefit and use of native Hawaiians, upon which they may live, farm, ranch, and otherwise engage in commercial or industrial or any other activities as authorized by the HHCA;

(2) Placing native Hawaiians on the lands set aside under the HHCA in a prompt and efficient manner and assuring long-term tenancy to beneficiaries of the HHCA and their successors;

(3) Preventing alienation of the fee title to the lands set aside under the HHCA so that these lands will always be held in trust for continued use by native Hawaiians in perpetuity;

(4) Providing adequate amounts of water and supporting infrastructure, so that homestead lands will always be usable and accessible; and

(5) Providing financial support and technical assistance to native Hawaiian beneficiaries of the HHCA so that by pursuing strategies to enhance economic self-sufficiency and promote community-based development, the traditions, culture and quality of life of native Hawaiians shall be forever self-sustaining.

The legislature further finds that the attainment of the goals and purposes expressed in the HHCA are best accommodated by means of a political subdivision governed by the beneficiaries of the HHCA.

The purpose of this Act is to amend the Constitution of the State of Hawaii by establishing the office of Hawaiian home lands as a political subdivision headed by the Hawaiian home lands council to effectuate the purposes of the HHCA.

SECTION 2. Article XII of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii is amended by adding a new section to be designated and to read as follows:

"OFFICE OF HAWAIIAN HOME LANDS

Section . There is established an office of Hawaiian home lands, which shall be a political subdivision headed by a Hawaiian home lands council that shall govern the political subdivision similar to other political subdivisions of the State, as provided by law. The members of the Hawaiian home lands council shall be native Hawaiians and elected by qualified voters who are native Hawaiians, as provided by law."

SECTION 3. The question to be printed on the ballot shall be as follows:

"Shall an office of Hawaiian home lands, headed by an elected Hawaiian home lands council, be established as a political subdivision of the State?"

SECTION 4. New constitutional material is underscored.

SECTION 5. This amendment shall take effect upon compliance with article XVII, section 3, of the Constitution of the State of Hawaii.

 

INTRODUCED BY: