STAND. COM. REP. NO.  839

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2009

 

RE:   H.B. No. 395

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fifth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2009

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 395 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO EARLY LEARNING,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to ensure continued funding for the State's early learning program by requiring any general fund appropriations designated for the State's early learning system that are unexpended or unencumbered at the end of the fiscal period specified in the appropriating Act to lapse into the Keiki First Steps Trust Fund.

 

     The Department of Education, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Good Beginnings Alliance, Kamehameha Schools, Aloha United Way, Keiki Funders Network of Hawaii, Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation, Hawaii Association of Independent Schools, Hawaii Association for the Education of Young Children, and the Institute for Native Pacific Education and Culture testified in support of this bill.  The Department of Budget and Finance opposed this measure. 

 

     Your Committee finds that the provisions of this bill are more appropriate in the form of session laws.  Accordingly, your Committee has amended this bill by providing in the session laws of Hawaii, that any general fund appropriations for comprehensive student support services (EDN 150) for fiscal year 2008-2009 that are designated for the early learning system under chapter 302L, Hawaii Revised Statutes, that are unexpended or unencumbered at the end of fiscal year 2008-2009 to lapse into the Keiki First Steps Trust Fund on June 30, 2009.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 395, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 395, H.D. 1.

 

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

 

 

		____________________________ MARCUS R. OSHIRO, Chair