Bill Text: HI HB1019 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

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Bill Title: Environmental Response, Energy, and Food Security Tax; Energy Security Special Fund; Agricultural Development Special Fund; Climate Change Task Force ($)

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Enrolled - Dead) 2012-04-13 - (H) Received notice of all Senate conferees being discharged (Sen. Com. No. 747). [HB1019 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-HB1019-Amended.html

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STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1252

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    H.B. No. 1019

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 1019, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO SUSTAINABILITY,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to revise the amounts allocated from the environmental response, energy, and food security tax, known as the barrel tax, to support programs that improve the State's energy and food sustainability and independence.

 

In addition, this measure extends the climate change task force for two years, until June 30, 2013, and authorizes funding for its operations.

 

     Your Committee received comments in support of this measure from Russell S. Kokubun, Chairperson, Board of Agriculture; Sylvia Yuen, Interim Dean and Director, College of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources, University of Hawaii at Manoa; Hawaii Farm Bureau Federation; Blue Planet Foundation; Christopher Eldridge, Partner, Aina Koa Pono, LLC; and two individuals.

 

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that the State is detrimentally reliant on imported fossil fuel and subject to the environmental risks associated therewith.  Your Committee further finds that it is in the best interests of the residents of the State to better use barrel tax revenues for energy self-sufficiency and sustainable agriculture to ensure Hawaii's energy and food security.  This measure also will protect the economic well-being, public health, natural resources, and environment of the State by providing funding for the climate change task force to assess impacts of global warming and rising sea levels and develop strategies to mitigate those impacts.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Changing the amounts allocated from the barrel tax to unspecified amounts;

 

     (2)  Removing the provision in section 8 that would retain amendments to section 243-3.5, Hawaii Revised Statutes, made by this measure when that section is reenacted on June 30, 2015, because the Climate Change Task Force is scheduled to sunset on June 30, 2013, and the agricultural development and food security special fund will cease to exist on June 30, 2015, making revenues for operation of the Task Force or for deposit into the special fund unnecessary after the latter date;

 

     (3)  Providing that the allocation to the Climate Change Task Force shall be made until June 30, 2013, after which the allocation shall be made to the agricultural development and food security special fund; and

 

     (4)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2117, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

 

     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. 1019, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1019, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

		____________________________ DAVID Y. IGE, Chair