STAND. COM. REP. NO.864

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2001

RE: S.B. No. 105

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2001

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 105 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO KIKALA-KEOKEA,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide funds for the development of infrastructure for the Kikala-Keokea homestead area on the island of Hawaii.

In particular, this bill transfers funds that were previously appropriated for a low-interest loan program from the former Housing Finance and Development Corporation's (now Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii) housing finance revolving fund to the Department of Land and Natural Resources for the development of infrastructure in this area. This bill also creates an infrastructure development fund to be administered by that Department for necessary expenses.

Your Committee received testimony in favor of this measure from the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Chairperson of the Board of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee finds that there is an immediate need to provide assistance to persons of Hawaiian ancestry of the Kikala-Keokea subdivision, including those who were Kalapana residents who were displaced from their homes as a result of volcanic eruptions, to enable them to perpetuate their way of life and cultural traditions.

Upon further consideration, your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Adding the contents of S.B. No. 1441, S.D. 1, which made an appropriation out of the general fund for water infrastructure in the Kikala-Keokea subdivision, to be expended by the Department of Land and Natural Resources and matched on a dollar-for-dollar basis by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs. Your Committee finds that waterlines are needed so that leases can be honored and the community re-established. However, your Committee has changed the language of this bill to specify that the funds are to be appropriated out of the infrastructure development fund, and that appropriations for both general infrastructure, including roads and other improvements, as well as water infrastructure, are to be matched by the Office of Hawaiian Affairs;

(2) Adding the substance of S.B. No. 586, which established a Kikala-Keokea housing revolving fund to provide low interest loans for home construction for Kikala-Keokea leaseholders who have been denied loans from traditional financial institutions, which is to be administered by the housing and community development corporation of Hawaii. Your Committee has amended the language of this bill to specify that unexpended or unencumbered funds remaining in the infrastructure development fund shall not lapse at the end of the 2001-2002 fiscal year, but are to be transferred to the Kikala-Keokea housing revolving fund, and to provide that the appropriation is to be for fiscal year 2002-2003 from that housing revolving fund for residential loans for Kikala-Keokea residents, including those that were once Kalapana residents; and

(3) Making technical nonsubstantive changes for the purpose of clarity.

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. 105, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 105, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair