Report Title:

Pearl Harbor Memorial; GO Bonds

Description:

Authorizes the issuance of GO bonds to contribute to the funding of a new Pearl Harbor memorial museum and visitor center.

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

H.B. NO.

1631

TWENTY-THIRD LEGISLATURE, 2005

 

STATE OF HAWAII

 


 

A BILL FOR AN ACT

 

RELATING TO THE pearl harbor memorial.

 

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

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that the Pearl Harbor memorial museum and visitor center (memorial) is steeped in historical significance, continues to be the leading tourist attraction in Hawaii, and remains a significant contributor to the ongoing economic health of the state. One and a half million visitors every year experience the power and reverence of this memorial, the final resting place for most of the 1,177 sailors and marines who died on the USS Arizona. The memorial also honors the fallen heroes of the other ships, airfields, barracks as well as civilians who died in the attack, and ultimately commemorates all casualties and combatants of World War II in the Pacific.

The memorial was dedicated on Memorial Day 1962, and the visitor center followed in 1980. Currently, the one-story building that houses the museum and visitors center is overcrowded by twice the planned capacity for which it was designed. The need for space in the museum is also increasing as many families of more recently deceased survivors are donating artifacts. The structural integrity of the building is in question as sections of the building have sunk thirty inches, resulting in cracks in the concrete structure. The current space is undersized and unsound.

The overall cost of the rebuilding of the facility is $34,000,000. Efforts have been made to spur private sector donations. Private gifts, state, and federal funds will comprise the majority of the support.

The purpose of this Act is to authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds to help fund the building project of the Pearl Harbor memorial museum and visitor center.

SECTION 2. The director of finance is authorized to issue general obligation bonds in the sum of $3,000,000, or so much thereof as may be necessary, and the same sum, or so much thereof as may be necessary, is appropriated for fiscal year 2005-2006 for the purpose of rebuilding the Pearl Harbor memorial museum and visitors center.

SECTION 3. The appropriation made for the capital improvement projects authorized by this Act shall not lapse at the end of the fiscal biennium for which the appropriation is made; provided that all moneys from the appropriation unencumbered as of June 30, 2008, shall lapse as of that date.

SECTION 4. The sum appropriated shall be expended by the department of accounting and general services for the purposes of this Act.

SECTION 5. This Act shall take effect on July 1, 2005.

INTRODUCED BY:

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