STAND. COM. REP. NO. 328

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 968

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Government Operations and Transportation and Culture and the Arts, to which was referred S.B. No. 968 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TRANSPORTATION,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Accounting and General Services to enable parking stall sharing among public employees, accommodate more electric vehicle charging stations, and provide bicycle storage lockers at facilities where parking is made available to public employees; and

(2) Require new public housing developments' parking stalls to accommodate electric vehicle charging stations and bicycle storage lockers.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Transportation, Hawai‘i Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation Commission, Big Island Electric Vehicle Association, Hawaii Electric Vehicle Association, Hawaii Bicycling League, Climate Protectors Hawaii, Ulupono Initiative, and two individuals. Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Accounting and General Services and Hawaii State Energy Office.

Your Committees find that numerous public employees commute to work by car and must pay for parking at their workplaces. However, public employees wishing to split the cost of sharing a single stall while carpooling in different cars on different days are currently prohibited by the Department of Accounting and General Services from doing so. Many people are also opting to drive electric vehicles, which are significantly less expensive to operate and maintain than gas vehicles, and many major manufacturers have already committed to cease the production and sale of gas-powered vehicles by 2030 and 2035, respectively. However, infrastructure for charging those vehicles in the public workplace does not exist.

Your Committees further find that public employees who bicycle to work have no secure bicycle storage. Employees have had bicycles stolen while locked in racks on the upper floors of the Kalanimoku building, State Capitol, and other public facilities. This limits the ability for employees to save, on average, nearly $13,000 each year by commuting to work by bicycle rather than car.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Adding the Department of Transportation to collaborate with the Department of Accounting and General Services;

(2) Inserting language to require the Department of Accounting and General Services and the Department of Transportation to develop, implement, administer, and manage the programs relative to this measure; and

(3) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2112, to encourage further discussion.

Your Committees have heard the concerns of the Department of Accounting and General Services that it would be cost prohibitive to implement this measure insofar as electric charging stations, for each new parking stall built requires extensive power system upgrades. Your Committees, therefore, respectfully ask the Committee on Ways and Means to request the Department of Accounting and General Services, as promised in their testimony, to provide a definitive cost estimate. Furthermore, your Committees find that it is not feasible to undertake this conversion project immediately because of ongoing construction projects and as such, has made this measure prospective to ensure that the current projects could be completed with the money that has been allocated.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Government Operations and Transportation and Culture and the Arts that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 968, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 968, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Government Operations and Transportation and Culture and the Arts,

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair

________________________________ ANGUS L.K. MCKELVEY, Chair