STAND. COM. REP. NO. 933

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1207

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Economic Development and Technology, to which was referred H.B. No. 1207, H.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO COMMUNITY-BASED ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to update and improve services provided by the Hawaii Community-Based Economic Development Program.

 

     Specifically, this measure achieves the following:

 

     (1)  Clarifies the definition of "community of interest" to mean a group of people who may not live in the same geographic area, but who are bound together through a common economic interest;

 

     (2)  Deletes the requirement for royalties to be deposited into the Hawaii Community-Based Economic Development Revolving Fund, but requiring all other moneys received by the Fund to be deposited into the Fund;

 

     (3)  Deletes the restriction against reallocating funds from the loan program to the grant program; and

 

     (4)  Lowers the maximum loan amount and interest rate on loans to a qualified applicant.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Hawaii Alliance of Nonprofit Organizations, and Maluohai Residents Assocation.  Written testimony presented to the Committee may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Hawaii Community-Based Economic Development Program must adjust and evolve to the constant changing needs of non-profit community-based organizations.  Your Committee also finds that decreasing the principal loan amounts and interest rates, as well as allowing the Hawaii community-based economic development revolving fund to receive moneys from any source rather than just the general fund, will allow the Hawaii Community-Based Economic Development Program to provide more funding and grants to qualified applicants.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Adding the definition of "community-based organization" to remove the restriction for a community-based organization to be membership-based; and

 

     (2)  Making a technical, nonsubstantive amendment for the purpose of clarity.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Economic Development and Technology that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1207, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1207, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Economic Development and Technology,

 

 

 

____________________________

CAROL FUKUNAGA, Chair