STAND. COM. REP. NO. 961

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1232

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1232 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE MAUI AIDS FOUNDATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds in the amount of $100,000 for each year of the fiscal biennium as a grant-in-aid to the Maui AIDS Foundation.

Your Committee finds that providing support for meeting the basic needs of food, housing, and transportation to individuals with HIV or AIDS is critical. Historically, federal funding through the Ryan White Comprehensive AIDS Resources Emergency Care Act of 1990 has assisted more than five hundred thousand HIV or AIDS patients annually. Federal funding, however, has been drastically reduced recently, leaving many HIV and AIDS patients in serious need of assistance in living with their conditions. Your Committee finds that this measure will provide valuable needed assistance in maintaining an acceptable quality of life for HIV and AIDS patients on Maui.

Your Committee has made the following amendments:

(1) Changed the source of funding to the emergency budget and reserve fund and added a purpose section;

(2) Replaced the phrase "grant-in-aid" with "grant in accordance with chapter 42F, Hawaii Revised Statutes" to more accurately reflect the requirements relating to such a "grant";

(3) Changed the expending agency from the Maui AIDS Foundation to the Department of Health because a government agency should be the entity to expend funds appropriated by the Legislature to make it clear that the funds are being appropriated and expended for a public purpose; and

(4) Changed the appropriation to an unspecified amount.

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. 1232, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1232, S.D. 1.

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

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair