STAND. COM. REP. NO.1019

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: H.B. No. 1111

H.D. 2

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1111, H.D. 2, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS FOR CLAIMS AGAINST THE STATE, ITS OFFICERS, OR ITS EMPLOYEES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to satisfy claims against the State for tax refunds, judgments, settlements, and miscellaneous claims.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General.

Your Committee finds that timely passage of this bill will serve to minimize interest accruing on certain claim amounts.

Your Committee raised concerns about a $70,591.07 disparity between two federal court cases when the senate version of this bill was heard. The Department of the Attorney General provided justification to both this Committee and the Senate Committee on Ways and Means explaining the disparity. Your Committee does not believe the disparity in attorney fees between Arakaki v. State of Hawaii and Smith v. State of Hawaii is justified.

The Attorney General also testified that his department would be providing further information regarding the Burns-Vidlak and Sterling class action settlements for inclusion in this bill. These law suits stem from the QUEST regulation violations. Therefore, based on this Committee's concerns and other requests for amendments from the Attorney General, your Committee amended the bill by:

(1) Deleting claims for Event Partners in Concession Services, et al. v. State of Hawaii, and Hi-Tec Roofing Services, Inc. v. State of Hawaii from section 3, and creating a new heading for the Department of Accounting and General Services in section 1;

(2) Reflecting the new total of $27,500 in section 3;

(3) Creating a new heading for the Department of Human Services in section 1, and inserting the $7,000,000 Burns-Vidlak and Sterling class action settlement;

(4) Deleting the claim of Charles Ramos from the Department of Education claims and adding it to the miscellaneous claims section, and re-totaling those sections;

(5) Reducing the Smith v. State of Hawaii claim from $126,085.15 to $63,042.58;

(6) Deleting the Oberle v. State of Hawaii claim from section 5, re-totaling the section, and correcting the program identification designation to read "special fund" instead of "general fund" as the appropriation source for the remaining claim;

(7) Replacing the contents of section 6 with the Oberle v. State of Hawaii claim, creating an additional heading for the Department of Land and Natural Resources, and appropriating the claim from program identification LNR (806); and

(8) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1111, H.D. 2, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1111, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

COLLEEN HANABUSA, Chair