STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1415-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: S.B. No. 2528

S.D. 1

H.D. 1

Honorable Nadine K. Nakamura

Speaker, House of Representatives

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Madame:

Your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 2528, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PARTIAL PUBLIC FINANCING OF ELECTIONS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to:

(1) Increase the expenditure limit and the amount of funds available to candidates qualified to participate in the Partial Public Financing Program, including candidates for the Board of Trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, who run statewide;

(2) Provide for the adjustment of the amount of minimum qualifying contributions required for certain offices;

(3) Increase matching fund payments from $1 to $4 for each $1 of qualifying contributions in excess of the minimum qualifying contribution amounts; and

(4) Appropriate general revenues for deposit into the Hawaii Election Campaign Fund to increase the amount of funds available for the Partial Public Financing Program.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Office of Hawaiian Affairs; Campaign Spending Commission; League of Women Voters of Hawaiʻi; Imua Alliance; Association of Hawaiian Civic Clubs; Hawaiʻi Alliance for Progressive Action; Green Party of Hawaiʻi; and numerous individuals.

Your Committee finds that the expenditure limits and funding amounts under Hawaii's Partial Public Financing Program have not been updated in many years and no longer reflect present-day campaign costs. Your Committee further finds that strengthening the Partial Public Financing Program would bolster publicly funded elections by expanding the reach of many small donors and relieving candidates of the need to rely on the support of special interest groups or large donors.

Your Committee has amended this measure by:

(1) Allowing candidates participating in the Partial Public Financing Program to allocate up to seventy-five percent of their authorized aggregate expenditure limits and available public funds to either the primary or general election, while preserving the combined limits applicable to both elections;

(2) Amending the maximum amount of public funds available in each election to a candidate for Trustee of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs to twenty-five percent of the expenditure limit;

(3) Changing the effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion; and

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

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider an appropriation amount of $2,860,769.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2528, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2528, S.D. 1, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Judiciary & Hawaiian Affairs,

____________________________

DAVID A. TARNAS, Chair