STAND. COM. REP. NO. 714-26

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2026

RE: H.B. No. 2056

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 Water & Land, to which was referred H.B. No. 2056 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT MAKING APPROPRIATIONS TO THE CITY AND COUNTY OF HONOLULU,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to appropriate funds to the Department of Housing and Land Management and Department of Design and Construction of the City and County of Honolulu as grants-in-aid to comply with the requirements of Act 206, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017, and Act 210, Session Laws of Hawaii 2018.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Education and Department of Housing and Land Management of the City and County of Honolulu.

Your Committee finds that Act 206, Session Laws of Hawaii 2017, and Act 210, Session Laws of Hawaii 2018, directed the City and County of Honolulu (City) to transfer ownership of ninety-seven school sites to the State so that the Department of Education would have full control over those parcels. Although the policy decision was made at the state level, the responsibility of completing these transfers was placed on the City without sufficient funding to implement them. These transfers are complex. Each parcel requires surveying, title research, mapping, easement analysis, and legal work to resolve decades-old issues before a transfer can occur. Your Committee further finds that completing this work across ninety-seven separate properties represents a substantial, multi-year workload that exceeds the City's existing capacity without additional resources. To date, the City has already incurred approximately $355,000 to advance title research, survey field work, and mapping. This measure provides the additional funding necessary to finalize the transfers for all ninety-seven sites.

Your Committee has amended this measure by changing its effective date to July 1, 3000, to encourage further discussion.

Your Committee respectfully requests your Committee on Finance, should it deliberate on this measure, to consider appropriating $3,250,000 for the City and County of Honolulu.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water & Land that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2056, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2056, H.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Water & Land,

____________________________

MARK J. HASHEM, Chair