STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3331

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 2315

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Health and Human Services and Labor and Technology, to which was referred H.B. No. 2315, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO STATE EMPLOYEE BENEFITS,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Department of Health to establish a Vacation Payout Pilot Program in which eligible Department of Health employees may defer unused vacation leave credits in favor of a pay out to provide home purchase down payment assistance.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Health; United Public Workers, AFSCME Local 646, AFL-CIO; Hawaii Government Employees Association, AFSCME Local 152, AFL-CIO; and Workforce Development Council.

Your Committees find that the State's high cost of living, particularly high housing prices, is a significant challenge to workforce recruitment and retention across the State. Your Committees believe that the State needs to explore new and alternative ways to recruit and retain a qualified public sector workforce, especially at a time when government salary and benefits alone may not be enough to be considered an attractive career. Your Committees further find that the down payment is frequently cited as the single greatest barrier to homeownership, and that a potential resource for state employees to fund these down payments may exist in the earned vacation benefits held by each individual state employee. This measure establishes a purposefully narrow Vacation Payout Pilot Program to allow Department of Health employees equitable access to an earned benefit at the time they need it and not at the end of their career.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Making it effective upon its approval; and

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

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Health and Human Services and Labor and Technology that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2315, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2315, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Health and Human Services and Labor and Technology,

________________________________ BRANDON J.C. ELEFANTE, Chair

________________________________ JOY A. SAN BUENAVENTURA, Chair