STAND. COM. REP. NO. 470

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 1088

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary and Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 1088 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO RETIREMENT CREDIT FOR UNUSED SICK LEAVE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to change the formula used to credit unused sick leave toward retirement benefits for certain employees.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and Employees' Retirement System.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association and Hawaii Fire Fighters Association.

 

     Your Committee finds that this measure addresses a situation where certain employees, upon retirement, receive additional benefits due to the additional service credit without making additional contributions.  Your Committee notes the concerns raised in testimony over creating a tiered system of benefits for employees within the Employees' Retirement System.  It has been asserted that this measure has the potential of creating a system under which employees holding equivalent positions and performing equivalent duties could nevertheless receive different benefits based solely on their date of hire.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an effective date of January 7, 2059 to encourage further discussion; and

 

     (2)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary and Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1088, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1088, 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 Labor,

 

 

 

____________________________

GILBERT S.C. KEITH-AGARAN, Chair