STAND.
COM. REP. NO. 225-22
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2022
RE: H.B. No. 1760
H.D. 1
Honorable Scott K. Saiki
Speaker, House of Representatives
Thirty-First State Legislature
Regular Session of 2022
State of Hawaii
Sir:
Your Committee on Labor & Tourism, to which was referred H.B. No. 1760 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO IMMIGRANT RESOURCE CENTERS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations, Office of Community Services, Hawai‘i Coalition for Immigrant Rights, Hawaii Friends of Civil Rights, The Legal Clinic, Common Cause Hawaii, Democratic Party of Hawai‘i, and one individual. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.
Your Committee finds that the Office of Community Services maintained immigrant resource centers in all four counties to provide support services for low-income immigrants for state fiscal years 2014 through 2017. The immigrant resource centers were funded by state funds at a level of $700,000 per year. Currently, no funds have been appropriated for immigrant resource centers and the Office of Community Services does not operate any.
Your Committee recognizes that, on a per-capita basis, Hawaii has an extremely large immigrant population compared to other states. According to the 2020 Census, about two hundred seventy thousand Hawaii residents, who constitute about 18.5 percent of Hawaii's total population, are foreign-born.
Your Committee further finds that Hawaii's immigrants are more likely to have a lower income than native-born residents and less likely to have health insurance, but according to 2018 statistics, they generate approximately $17,600,000,000 toward Hawaii's economy, paying $1,550,000,000 in federal taxes and over $874,000,000 in Hawaii state and county taxes. Hawaii's immigrants make up forty percent of the State's agricultural workers and thirty-three percent of the State's tourism, entertainment, and hospitality workers.
Your Committee also finds that when the immigrant resource centers were operating, service providers actively reached out to the immigrant communities and made immigrants aware of the services available to them at all levels of government and in the private sector. Your Committee believes these outreach efforts should continue with the revival of immigrant resource centers.
Your
Committee has amended this measure by:
(1) Requiring an outreach component for the
immigrant resource centers;
(2) Changing the effective date to December 25,
2040, to encourage further discussion; and
(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments
for the purposes of clarity, consistency, and style.
Should your Committee on Finance decide to
hear this measure, your Committee respectfully requests that it consider
appropriating $1,000,000 for the immigrant
resource centers.
As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor & Tourism that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1760, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1760, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.
Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor & Tourism,
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____________________________ RICHARD H.K. ONISHI, Chair |
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