STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2925

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2346

       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 Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 2346, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ADDRESS CONFIDENTIALITY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to establish an address confidentiality program within the Department of the Attorney General to help survivors of domestic abuse, sexual offenses, or stalking relocate and keep their actual addresses confidential.

 

     The measure also appropriates funds to the Department of the Attorney General for the implementation and operation of the address confidentiality program.

 

     Your Committee received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of the Attorney General; Parents and Children Together; the Sex Abuse Treatment Center; Planned Parenthood Votes Northwest and Hawaii; the Domestic Violence Action Center; Hawaii Women Lawyers; Hawaii State Democratic Women's Caucus; Hawaii Women's Coalition; Hawaii State Coalition Against Domestic Violence; American Association of University Women, Hawaii; University of Hawaii-Leeward; OCC Legislative Priorities Committee, Democratic Party of Hawaii; and five individuals.

 

     The Department of Taxation submitted written comments on the measure.

 

     Your Committee believes that the address confidentiality program established by this measure will help to better protect survivors of domestic abuse, sexual offenses, or stalking by providing them with a substitute legal address for use by state and local government agencies, in place of their physical address, whenever an address is required for public records.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Specifying the means by which written notice of a court order requiring disclosure of a program participant's actual address is to be served upon the program participant;

 

     (2)  Changing the appropriation's effective date to July 1, 2049;

 

     (3)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure; and

 

     (4)  Making technical nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.

 

Your Committee notes that the Department of the Attorney General estimates it will need an additional $172,128 for fiscal year 2018-2019 to cover program personnel costs, including fringe benefits, for a program director and two application assistants, as well as an additional $60,000 to physically house these personnel and procure the equipment and supplies needed for the program, for a total of an additional $232,128 for fiscal year 2018-2019.

 

     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 S.B. No. 2346, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2346, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

 

 

________________________________

DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair