STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1968

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.C.R. No. 107

H.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred H.C.R. No. 107, H.D. 1, entitled:

"HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION URGING THE CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU TO EXEMPT FROM REAL PROPERTY TAX THOSE PROPERTY OWNERS OF RESIDENTIAL UNITS WITHIN ONE-HALF MILE OF AN ACTIVE MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE LANDFILL OR CONSTRUCTION AND DEMOLITION LANDFILL OR DEEMED TO HAVE BEEN IMPACTED BY AN ACTIVE LANDFILL TO A DEGREE THAT WARRANTS SUCH AN EXEMPTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to urge the City and County of Honolulu to exempt from real property tax those property owners of residential units within one-half mile of an active municipal solid waste landfill or construction and demolition landfill or deemed to have been impacted by an active landfill to a degree that warrants such an exemption.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Iron Workers Stabilization Fund; International Association of Bridge, Structural, Ornamental and Reinforcing Iron Workers; Hydroponics Alternatives, LLC; and six individuals.

Your Committee finds that landfills are hazardous to human health and that communities in West Oahu have been subjected to these hazards for decades. The community members and their families in the two census tracks abutting the PVT Landfill operated in Nanakuli have been especially impacted by the attributed pollution in the area, and live approximately ten years less than the state average of eighty-two years, being the second and third lowest life expectancies in Hawaii. Your Committee acknowledges that every community in Hawaii is entitled to a clean and healthful environment and that the overreliance on landfills and consumer-based solid waste accumulation is unsustainable and detrimental to the health of residents and the environment of the State. However, your Committee further recognizes that the critical statewide waste-related infrastructure changes will require immense planning, funding, and political support over time, which can each be slow to acquire and fickle by nature. In the meantime, the State must do what it can to alleviate the immediately hazardous and deleterious ailments that afflict residents near landfills on Oahu. Therefore, this measure urges the City and County of Honolulu to provide a real property tax exemption for those residents living within a certain distance of an active landfill and in areas that the City and County deems to be impacted by landfill operations. While this exemption does not resolve the overarching issue, it is intended to reduce the burdens of a polluted environment by financially empowering residents to improve their health and well-being as they see fit.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee concurs with the intent and purpose of H.C.R. No. 107, H.D. 1, and recommends its adoption.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

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MIKE GABBARD, Chair