STAND. COM. REP. NO. 672

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 201

       S.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Colleen Hanabusa

President of the Senate

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Madam:

 

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 201, S.D. 1, 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 to purchase ten buses to transport the elderly, the disabled, and pre-school children to and from public and private service facilities.

 

     Your Committee received two written comments on this measure.  The written comments may be reviewed on the Legislature's website.

 

     Your Committee finds that according to United States Census Bureau statistics, Hawaii county represents more than sixty per cent of the entire land area of the State.  Because of the county's large geographic size, adequate and reliable transportation is vital to the county's residents, especially the elderly, disabled, and children

 

     Your Committee also finds that twenty-four off-highway communities in Hawaii county exist along a two hundred sixty-mile area where no transportation service is provided except for the Hawaii County Economic Opportunity Council.  Many of the Council's buses are over ten years old and require constant maintenance to keep them operational.  Your Committee believes that new buses will provide safer, more efficient and reliable transportation for the Council's clients.

 

     Your Committee has amended the measure by:

 

     (1)  Stipulating that the appropriation not be expended if federal funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 can be used in lieu of the appropriation in this measure;

 

     (2)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2099, to encourage further discussion on this matter; and

 

     (3)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

 

     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. 201, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 201, S.D. 2.

 

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

 

		____________________________ DONNA MERCADO KIM, Chair