STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2650

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 2731

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 2731 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE BERNICE PAUAHI BISHOP MUSEUM,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to appropriate funds to support the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, Hawai‘i Tourism Authority, and Kanaeokana Network.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance.

 

     Your Committee finds that the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, designated as the State of Hawaii Museum of Natural and Cultural History, is significant for its cultural, architectural, educational, scientific, and historical contributions to Hawaii.  It is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and is one of Hawaii's most significant and iconic buildings. 

 

     Your Committee further finds that the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum stewards more than twenty-five million catalogued objects, and actively generates and shares knowledge associated with its collections.  The museum's work supports over fifty state and federal government agencies, departments, and affiliated organizations, without whom many basic questions concerning Hawaii's people, plants, and animals could not be answered with efficiency and confidence.  The museum's collections include over 1,200,000 cultural artifacts, representing Native Hawaiian, Pacific Island, and Hawaii immigrant life; more than 125,000 historical publications, including many in the Hawaiian language; one million historical photographs, films, works of art, and publications; and over twenty-two million plant and animal specimens.

 

     Your Committee also finds that Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum researchers have discovered over seventeen thousand species of plants, animals, and insects throughout the Pacific region and have made countless discoveries related to the migration, settlement, and daily life of Pacific people.  Not only does the museum conduct research, but it also provides vital education to the public.  The museum's educational programs provide science and cultural education opportunities to thousands of school children in Hawaii each year, and it is estimated that the museum has hosted more than ten million visitors over its history.

 

     This measure will appropriate funds to enable the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum to continue its work to protect Hawaii's irreplaceable collections and primary source knowledge, which is a global resource essential for the perpetuation of Hawaii's natural and cultural heritage.

 

     Your Committee notes the testimony of the Department of Budget and Finance, stating that funding for the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum may be more suitably appropriation to the Department of Accounting and General Services.  This is because Act 88, Session Laws of Hawaii 2021, removed the recurring operating subsidy of $626,000 in general funds for the museum from the Department of Budget and Finance's base budget and replaced it with appropriations of $626,000 in American Rescue Plan Act funds in fiscal year 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 that were made to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts within the Department of Accounting and General Services.

 

     Accordingly, your Committee has amended this measure by:

 

     (1)  Inserting an appropriation amount of $2,000,000;

 

     (2)  Changing the expending agency to the Department of Accounting and General Services;

 

     (3)  Requiring the sum appropriated pursuant to this measure to be included in the base budget for the Department of Accounting and General Services for the Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum in future fiscal bienniums; and

 

     (4)  Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

 

     Your Committee also notes the testimony of the Department of Budget and Finance expressing concerns regarding this measure's possible effect on the State's obligation to adhere to the maintenance of effort requirements as a recipient of Elementary and Secondary Schools Emergency Relief funds under the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021 and the American Recovery Plan Act of 2021.  Your Committee finds that this issue raises concerns that merit further consideration and respectfully requests that your Committee on Ways and Means further examine those issues and concerns raised by the testimony.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2731, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2731, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Labor, Culture and the Arts,

 

 

 

________________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair