Bill Text: HI SB687 | 2012 | Regular Session | Amended

---

Bill Title: Public Lands; Lease; Agricultural Activities; Agribusiness Development Corporation

Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1-0)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2011-12-01 - Carried over to 2012 Regular Session. [SB687 Detail]

Download: Hawaii-2012-SB687-Amended.html

---

 

 

STAND. COM. REP. NO. 399

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                  

 

RE:    S.B. No. 687

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Agriculture, to which was referred S.B. No. 687 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC LAND,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

 

(1)  Direct the Department of Land and Natural Resources to issue leases for certain public lands without going first to public auction;

 

(2)  Establish lessee selection criteria and lease requirements for the Department of Land and Natural Resources to use and apply in leasing certain public lands to qualified farmers; and

 

(3)  Require the Agribusiness Development Corporation to assist qualified farmers who lease public land for agricultural activities with marketing, technical, or business needs.

 

     Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Agribusiness Development Corporation.  Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Land and Natural Resources.

 

     Your Committees find that certain lands within the public lands inventory under the jurisdiction of the Department of Land and Natural Resources are suitable for agricultural uses.  This measure permits the Department to lease these lands for agricultural purposes, subject to certain lessee criteria, ensuring the short-term productive use of these public lands, and provides for the transfer of these lands to and management by the Department of Agriculture, ensuring their long-term productive use for agricultural purposes.

 

     Your Committees have amended this measure by 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 Water, Land, and Housing and Agriculture that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 687, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 687, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, and Housing and Agriculture,

 

____________________________ CLARENCE K. NISHIHARA, Chair		____________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair