STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3590

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1768

       H.D. 2

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2018

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred H.B. No. 1768, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO INFORMATION PRACTICES,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to permit public inspection and duplication of salary ranges, rather than exact compensation, for legislative employees.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO.  Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from the League of Women Voters and two individuals.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Office of Information Practices, Civil Beat Law Center for the Public Interest, and Common Cause Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that transparency and accountability in the operation of government is in the public interest.  Your Committee further finds that state employees have a reasonable privacy interest in their specific financial information.  This measure will balance those interests by disclosing sufficient information for taxpayers to hold the government accountable for the manner in which their taxes are spent while not disclosing the exact salaries of state employees.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Permitting public inspection and duplication of salary ranges, rather than exact compensation, for all state employees covered by collective bargaining units under section 89-6, Hawaii Revised Statutes, rather than only bargaining unit (8);

 

     (2)  Clarifying that persons employed for the purposes of assisting the legislature during regular sessions only are not "legislative employees" for the purposes of public record disclosure requirements; and

 

     (3)  Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2035, to encourage further discussion.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1768, H.D. 2, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1768, H.D. 2, S.D. 2.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

 

 

 

________________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair