STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1076

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 837

S.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 Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 837 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE DEPARTMENT OF BUSINESS, ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, AND TOURISM,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism to acquire real, personal, or mixed property; to clear, improve, and rehabilitate and to sell, assign, exchange, transfer, convey, lease, dispose, or encumber the property; and acquire property by condemnation.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from UNITE HERE Local 5. Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

Your Committee finds that normally, acquisitions conducted by the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism are subject to approval by the Board of Land and Natural Resources and a rigorous due diligence process including title review, appraisal, land survey and environmental hazards study, and possible mitigation. This measure would provide the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism with the discretion to conduct its due diligence in a manner it deems fit and appropriate under the circumstances.

Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of March 22, 2075, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 837, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 837, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary,

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KARL RHOADS, Chair