Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 21, Number 4, 1 April 2004 — Legislative Report [ARTICLE]

Legislative Report

A round-up of the mid-term status of bills that OHA has been involved with during the 22nd State Legislature

2004, the second year of the 22nd Legislature, has mainly been addressing issues relating to drug addiction, the environment, land use, agricultural land, education, labor disputes and coastal activities. Hawaiians have had small positive gains in areas such as beach erosion, education, land and agricultural reform, and bioprospecting (profiting from research or other use of organisms collected on puhlie lands). But in all, this has not particularly been a year

of the Hawaiian - especially when compared with last year, when Governor Linda Lingle signed into law Act 34, a measure that transferred $9.5 million from state funds for unpaid ceded land revenue owed to OHA since a prior law setting a revenue formula was invalidated. (In total, OHA will receive $12.3 million, whieh the state acknowledged was a retroactive payment owed to OHA from July 1, 2001 through present.) This page features the current status of measures with whieh OHA has been involved over the last two sessions.

OHA's legislative package in the 2003 and 2004 sessions have included bills that would: • Reinstate Act 304, whieh provided funding guidelines for 20 percent of ceded lands revenue; • Allow OHA trustees to buy back service credit in their retirement program; • Allow the OHA board to set the salary of the OHA administrator; • Prevent the state from selling, exchanging or otherwise alienating ceded lands; • Require eaeh county to adopt an ordinance that exempts kuleana lands from real property taxes if the land has been continuously occupied; • Lead to the appointment of an OHA Trustee or designee to the Board of Land and Natural Resources, the State Land Use Commission and the Puhlie Advisory Body for Coastal Zone Management; • Make technical amendments regarding OHA's grant-issuing authority; • Require OHA to establish and maintain a registry of all persons of Hawaiian ancestry. So far, only the last two bills (OHA's grant-making authority and the Hawaiian Registry) have been signed into law. The remaining bills are languishing in either the House or the Senate. There has been some committee activity, but nothing that has resulted in the bills being approved and sent to the governor for signature.

OHA also submitted comments on the following controversial issues: • SB 2440: Would allow nine 999year homestead leases to be assigned to hānai and adopted first cousins. (OHA believes that family law clearly covers the order of inheritance should the lessee die interstate, and that the probate code should dictate these matters.) • SB 2139: Would Establish and authorize the expenditure of funds for the museum of Hawaiian music and dance from the works of art special fund and OHA. • HB 87: Would authorize the Board of Land and Natural Resources to enter into lease negotiations with Hawai'i Beachboy Preservation Foundation at Duke Kahanamoku heaeh in Waikīkī.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs encourages your participation in the political process. Please take the time and visit www.capitol.hawaii.gov for current legislative information If you wish copies of OHA's testimony on any of the proposed bills, please eontact David Rodriguez at 594-1756.

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The following OHA-supported bills that need your continued support: • SB 2758: Prohibits the state from selling, exchanging, or otherwise alienating lands contained in the puhlie land trust. • HB 1335: Requires all students of Hawaiian descent at the University of Hawai'i to receive tuition waivers. • SB 3148: Creates, as a five-year project, an autonomous Host Culture Charter School District. (See story on page 1.) • HB 2034: Prohibits the conveyance of the rights, interest and title of biological resources or biological diversity on puhlie lands and establishes a temporary bioprospecting advisory eommission to develop a comprehensive bioprospecting plan. • HB 2985: Allows the governor to select one appointment from a list of nominees submitted by OHA to the Land Use Commission. • SB 1556: Changes the present shoreline certification process by changing the definition of "shoreline" and requiring state shoreline locators as well as private land surveyors to determine and certify shorelines, and appropriates funds for a videographic study of the upper reaches of the wash of high seasonal surf around the islands. • SB 3116: Establishes standards for the discharge of gray water, other wastewater and air emissions from cruise ships and commercial passenger vessels into the marine waters of the state. • SB 2779: Changes the "Elders' (Kūpuna) Council" in relation to regulating traditional Native Hawaiian healing practices. • HB 2074: Ensures that allowahle waivers or reductions of penalties for small businesses will not apply to any laws protecting the environment or eultural resources.

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Several measures that OHA opposes as not being in the best interests of Native Hawaiians have failed to advance, including: • HB 1764: Would allow "wilderness lodges" based on the principles of ecotourism to be constructed on agricultural lands. • HB 2544: Would prohibit fishing with gill nets throughout the state. • SB 2458: Would prohibit the use of nets to fish in Kahului Harbor. • HB 48/HDl: Would allow the lease of submerged lands and lands beneath tidal waters under the custody of the DOT for marine activities. • HB 1695: Would establish military installations in the State of Hawai'i as an area of "critical state eoneem." • HB 1715/SB 2450: Would limit Land Use Commission jurisdiction over land-use district boundary amendments to those involving land areas greater than 50 acres, except in conservation districts. • HB 2271: Would establish standards, criteria and process for identification of important agricultural lands. Provides a one-time process to reclassify lands of low agricultural value. • SB 379: Would facilitate and appropriate funds for the establishment of a comprehensive system for inventorying and maintaining information about the lands in the puhlie land trust. (OHA questions the need for the inventory and strongly objects to the requirement that OHA provide partial funding. The state serves as the trustee of the Public Land Trust

and should be responsible for the costs ofthe inventory.) • SB 2401: Would permit the eounties to reclassify lands from "agriculture" to "rural" for areas not exceeding 100 acres, subject to disapproval of the Legislature. • SB 2464: Would establish an advisory task force to review the land use and zoning law of the state and counties to shorten and expedite the land use process. • HB 81/SB 478: Would provide for the election of OHA trustees through a system of primary and general eleetions. Currently, the process is part of the general election only. ( OHA believes the addition of a primary election for trustees is not needed and would incur unnecessary e.xpense. ) • HB 1526; Would make OHA eleetions subject to a nonpartisan primary. • SB 1529: Proposes amendments to the Hawai'i State Constitution relating to the abolition of OHA. • SB 1530: Would establish transition provisions upon the ratification of a constitutional amendment requiring the abolition of OHA and the creation of a private non-profit trust, known as the Hawaiian Autonomy Trust. • SB 3150: Makes a $15,100,000 appropriation to OHA in ceded land revenues. Creates a joint advisory committee. (OHA feels that this is premature. It is hoped that formal negotiations between OHA and the administration will take plaee in the not too distant future.)

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Yes, there have been small victories along the way, but we must always remember the three realities of politics: 1. Politicians react to puhlie sentiment and puhlie opinion. We need to constantly keep the pressure on by writing letters to newspapers and submitting written testimony on bills and issues of eoneem to the Native Hawaiian community; 2. Politicians and politics are

cyclical. Remember the controversy over same-sex marriage six years ago? Well now it's in the headlines again. We must constantly remain vigilant and reinforce our positions, as well as support sympathetic candidates. 3. Politicians think we have short memories. Remember to keep involved and informed. Keep a record of the actions of your legislators and remember to vote accordingly.