STAND. COM. REP. NO. 318

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 601

H.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 601 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE SMALL BUSINESS BILL OF RIGHTS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to list the rights of small businesses with regard to governmental regulation, by setting forth the Small Business Bill of Rights.

The Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, Small Business Regulatory Review Board, Hawaii Business League, and a small business owner testified in support of this bill. The Office of the Ombudsman requested an amendment.

Your Committees find that small businesses are an essential component of Hawaii's economy and that government should minimize and streamline its regulation of small businesses, and at the same time strive to support and encourage these businesses.

Your Committees heard testimony that the rights set forth in the Small Business Bill of Rights currently exist in the form of agency policy and procedures, and believes that these rights, if they are to help small businesses, should be enforceable. To this end, your Committees have amended this bill to provide a private cause of action allowing small business owners to enforce the Small Business Bill of Rights. An effective date of July 1, 2099, was also provided to encourage further discussion of this measure.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 601, as amended herein, and recommend that it be referred to the Committee on Finance, in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 601, H.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Consumer Protection & Commerce and Judiciary,

 

____________________________

SYLVIA LUKE, Chair

____________________________

KENNETH HIRAKI, Chair