STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1540

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1356

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1356, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO UNFUNDED LIABILITIES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish the rate stabilization reserve fund to provide reserve funds for the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund.

 

     Additionally, this measure:

 

(1)  Caps the mandatory annual public employer contributions to the separate trust fund for other post-employment benefits once the combined balance of the contributions is at least $2,000,000,000; and

 

(2)  Authorizes the Board of Trustees of the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund to invest moneys in the same manner as the Board of Trustees of the Employees' Retirement System.

 

     Your Committee received written comments on the measure from the Department of Budget and Finance, the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund, and the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund should be permitted to invest in the same asset classes as the Employees' Retirement System to maximize returns within prudent levels of risk.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by deleting all of its contents except for the amendment to the investment powers of the Board of Trustees of the Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund.

 

     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 H.B. No. 1356, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1356, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

JILL N. TOKUDA, Chair