STAND. COM. REP. NO. 78

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 201

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Labor, to which was referred S.B. No. 201 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING AN APPROPRIATION FOR THE HAWAII COUNTY ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY COUNCIL,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council for the purchase of ten buses to provide transportation for disadvantaged and low-income people in the County of Hawaii.

 

     Testimony in support of this measure was submitted by the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council.  Copies of written testimony are available for review on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that Hawaii County is geographically the largest of the State's counties.  Your Committee also finds that twenty-four off-highway communities exist along a two-hundred-sixty-mile area where no transportation services are available other than that provided by the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council.

 

     Your Committee further finds that the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council currently uses twenty-eight mini-buses to serve their clients and that ten of the buses are more than ten years old, each with over 250,000 recorded miles.  These ten buses require frequent maintenance and repairs, encounter difficulties in meeting safety checks, and increase operational costs due to inefficient use of gas and oil.

 

     Your Committee believes that the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council provides a unique and valuable service by providing transportation for low-income elderly, disabled, low-income preschool children, and other disadvantaged people in the County of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee acknowledges the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council's request for $600,000 to purchase the ten buses but will currently leave the appropriation request unspecified to allow the Committee on Ways and Means to determine the appropriate amount.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure as follows:

 

     (1)  By deleting the dollar amount and leaving it unspecified for determination by the Committee on Ways and Means; and

 

     (2)  By making technical, nonsubstantive changes for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 201, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 201, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

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

 

		____________________________ DWIGHT Y. TAKAMINE, Chair