STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2966

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2591

S.D. 2

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2024

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2591, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BURIAL SITES,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to impose a fine of $1,000 on any private landowner who:

(1) Fails to disclose or record the existence of burial sites or archaeological sites on their property to the Bureau of Conveyances that the landlord knew or should have known of; or

(2) Fails to record their property with the Hawaii Register of Historic Places prior to or concurrent with a real estate transaction when they knew or should have known that an obligation existed.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Malama Mauka, and one individual.

Your Committee finds that it is important for the State to encourage property owners to allow access to their lands to identify burial sites and to carry out cultural practices relating to burial sites. Your Committee further finds that it is crucial to stress that private landowners be accountable for these sites. This measure will preserve and guard burial sites by instituting fines on private property owners that fail to disclose and record these historical sites.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Deleting language that would have imposed a fine of $1,000 on any private landowner who fails to record their property with the Hawaii Register of Historic Places prior to or concurrent with a real estate transaction when they knew or should have known that an obligation existed;

(2) Amending section 1 to reflect its amended purpose; and

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

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. 2591, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2591, S.D. 2.

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

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KARL RHOADS, Chair