STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1111

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 1343

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 1

Honorable Donna Mercado Kim

President of the Senate

Twenty-Eighth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2015

State of Hawaii

Madam:

     Your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs, to which was referred H.B. No. 1343, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SAFETY,"

beg leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate state matching funds for the establishment of a business recovery center within the Department of Defense.

     Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Defense, Hawaii Emergency Management Agency, and Chamber of Commerce Hawaii.

     Your Committees find that a business recovery center encompasses an online presence and a physical structure.  The physical structure is equipped with infrastructure appropriate to meet the collaborative needs of business and government agencies before, during, and after a disaster.  More specifically, the business recovery center serves as a channel for private sector industries to access information on the status of utilities and roads.  The center also serves as an access point for these private sector industries to post requests for proposals on contracts during and following disasters.

     Your Committees additionally note that traditionally forty percent of small businesses fail following a disaster.  Accordingly, collaborative efforts between local businesses and the government are particularly vital to the survival of many small businesses throughout the State.  The Department of Defense was recently awarded $1,159,000 in federal funds from the United States Department of Commerce to be used for the establishment of a business recovery center.  State matching funds of $328,000 must be provided in order to access these federal funds.  This amount represents a three-fold return on the State's contribution.

     Your Committees further find that funds were appropriated in the last legislative session for the land and physical structure of the business recovery center.  Accordingly, the monies provided in this measure are intended to fund staff and other necessary personnel, creation and maintenance of an online website, upgrades to the existing power and air-conditioning infrastructure in the center's building, and miscellaneous, short-term projects based in the physical structure of the business recovery center.

     Your Committees have amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1343, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1343, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Economic Development and Technology and Public Safety, Intergovernmental and Military Affairs,

________________________________ WILL ESPERO, Chair

________________________________ GLENN WAKAI, Chair