Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 29, Number 6, 1 June 2012 — 2012 legislative wrap-up [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

2012 legislative wrap-up

/A no'aikakou ... Ē \ Congratulations to all Ē^K OHA trustees and staff / V members for all of their Ē %dedication and hard work in getting the OHA/state settlement agreement passed into law. The 2012 legislative session will surely be remembered as one of OHA's most successful.

LEGISLATIVE LIAISON As vice chair of the Committee on Beneficiary Advocacy and Empowennent (BAE) and one of two "Legislative Liaisons" for the 2012 legislative session, I had the distinct pleasure working closely with Sens. Malama Solomon, Clayton Hee and Brickwood Galuteria and Rep. Faye Hanohano on issues relating to the settlement and the preservation of kuleana lands.

KAKA'AKO MAKAI Senate Bill 682 proposed to add value to two parcels of land that are among the lands in Kaka'ako Makai that the OHA/ state settlement (Act 015) conveys to OHA. The right to develop residential stmctures on these two lots would add significant value and provide mueh needed revenue for our Nation. On April 5, 2012, the Honoluhi StarAdvertiser reported that SB 682 was likely dead in the House. However, the Senate Ways and Means, and Iudiciary and Labor committees added similar language into a related bill that had already passed the House - HB 2819 - so the language for SB 682 could still be heard in conference committee. HB 2819 did not pass out of its conference committee before the end of session on May 3 and will need to be revisited in the next legislative session. PROTECTING KULEANA LAND PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTIONS On Nov. 22, 2011, the Star-Advertiser reported that the Real Property Tax Advisory Commission recommended that the City and County of Honolulu eliminate property tax exemptions for about 150,000 Oahu homeowners, including kuleana land

owners. On lan. 23, 2012, 1 testified before the City Council's Budget Conunittee hearing on the Real Property Tax Advisory Connnission's report. I explained to the members of the connnittee the heartbreaking history of kuleana lands and stressed to the Budget Committee chair, Councihnember Ann Kobayashi, that OHA

strongly opposed the proposal. Thankfully, the matter was dropped (for

now at least). However, upon Councilmember Kobayashi's recommendation, I worked to get the state Legislature to pass a resolution supporting the protection and preservation of kuleana lands. On April 10, 2012, the state Senate adopted Senate Resolution (SR) 33, whieh urged the counties to preserve property tax exemptions for kuleana lands. I would like to offer my sincere

thanks to Sen. Malama Solomon, who introduced SR 33, and Sens. Brickwood Galuteria, Gilbert Kahele, Donovan Dela Cruz and Miehelle Kidani for signing on to the resolution. I would like to give a big mahalo to OHA staff members Breann Nu'uhiwa, Sterhng Wong, lim MeMahon and Luei Meyer for all their efforts to get this resolution passed. I would also like to send a special mahalo to Rep. Faye Hanohano for introducing House versions of the kuleana lands resolutions, House Concurrent Resolution 117 and House Resolution 89, and getting them approved by the House Hawaiian Affairs Committee. However, both resolutions did not get a hearing in the House Finance Conunittee despite my repeated requests to its chair, Rep. Marcus Oshiro. Neither resolution called for any money to be appropriated, so the question is why were they even referred to the House Finance Conunittee? AlohaKeAkua. ■ Interested in Hawaiian issues and OHA? PIease visit nry web site at www. rowenaakana.org for more information or email me at rowenaa@oha.org.

Rūwena Akana Trustee, At-large