STAND. COM. REP. NO. 95

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 709

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Water and Land, to which was referred S.B. No. 709 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRAILS,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds for the operational budget of the Department of Land and Natural Resources for Nā Ala Hele, the Hawaii statewide trail and access program, to improve access to and maintenance of state controlled recreational trails, and to phase in budget increases for the Nā Ala Hele over the next five years to keep pace with inflation.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Sierra Club of Hawaii, Maunawili Estates Community Association, and eleven individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from two individuals.

 

Your Committee finds that there are one hundred twenty-eight trail-and-road features spanning approximately eight hundred fifty-five miles in the statewide trail and access program.  Your Committee further finds that hiking is a popular activity in Hawaii, and there is a high demand for more trails and greater and improved trail facilities and maintenance; the current volume of trail use combined with weathering necessitate a higher level of development and maintenance than is currently possible under budgeted funds.  Your Committee further finds that appropriations for Nā Ala Hele have not kept pace with inflation - the 1992 budget of $2,000,000 is the equivalent of approximately $3,440,527.50 in 2016 dollars when adjusted for inflation - and it is in the public interest to phase in budget increases for Nā Ala Hele.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Stating the intent of the Legislature to continue to phase in budget increases for Nā Ala Hele and stating suggested appropriation amounts for future fiscal years;

 

     (2)  Deleting the appropriation amounts for fiscal years 2019-2020, 2020-2021, and 2021-2022 to avoid binding future legislatures;

 

     (3)  Inserting appropriation amounts for fiscal years 2017-2018 and 2018-2019; and

 

     (4)  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 Water and Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 709, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 709, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water and Land,

 

 

 

________________________________

KARL RHOADS, Chair