Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 32, Number 2, 1 Pepeluali 2015 — 2015 OHA LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

2015 OHA LEGISLATIVE PACKAGE

By Sterling Wong Eaeh year, OHA Public Policy staff reviews thousands of bills introduced during the legislative session, and tracks and testifies on hundreds of measures relevant to the Native Hawaiian community. In addition, Puhlie Policy staff advocates for a package of bills developed and introduced by OHA itself, specifically intended to further the interests of the agency's beneficiaries. This year, OHA's legislative package includes seven diverse measures, ranging from updates to the state's agricultural priorities, to a first step toward systemically improving services for keiki with incarcerated parents, to a resolution seeking greater accountability in puhlie land trust revenues. This package was developed over a six-month period, after extensive consultation with OHA staff, beneficiaries and other stakeholders, as well as final approval by the OHA Board of Trustees. The following is a summary of the measures that OHA will be pursuing at the Legislature this year. While Puhlie Policy staff will endeavor to ensure that our legislators understand the benefits of OHA's legislative package, the suc-

cess of these bills may depend upon the support of the broader community, and their willingness to get enaaaed in the lea-

islative process. For more information on how you, your family and your friends ean support these measures and the interests of the Native Hawaiian community, please visit www.oha.org/legislation.

Note: Bill numbers have not yet been assigned as of the date of this writing. OHA-1

OHA Budget: OHA's budget bill requests $3.74 million in state general funds for eaeh of the next two fiscal years to support OHA's budget plans for the upcoming biennium(FY2015-2016/ FY2016-2017). Included in this bill are proposals to match OHA trust

funds with state general funds to support programs that provide legal, social, ineome, health, housing and education services to Native Hawaiians. By passing this measure, the state would reaffirm its eommkment to address the needs of Native Hawaiians by supporting programs and operations that will directly benefit OHA and its beneficiaries. OHA-2 Hawaiian Language Assessments: Fromschoolyear2011-2012 through school year 2013-2014, the Hawai'i Department of Education (DOE) administered a version of the Hawai'i State Assessment that was translated from English into the Hawaiian language for students in the state's Hawaiian language immersion program. The Hawaiian language and education eommunities have raised strong concerns about the negative impact that a translated test has on these students, schools and the program. Reported problems from the translated test include cultural and translation biases, translation inaccuracies and terminology inconsistencies, whieh have resulted in highly inaecurate assessments of Hawaiian language immersion schools and students. To address these eoncerns, this bill requires the state DOE to develop independent reading, math and science assessments \in the Hawaiian i SEE LEGISLATURE ON PAGE 8

OHAs legislative package includes seven diverse measures, ranging from updates to the states agricultural priorities, to a first step toward systemically improving services for keiki with incarcerated parents, to a resolution seeking greater accountability in puhlie land trust revenues.

GOVERNANCE To restore pono and ea, Native Hawaiians will achieve self-gover-nanee, after whieh the assets of OHA will be transferred to the new governing entity.

LEGISLATURE

Continued from page 5 language for Hawaiian language immersion students in grades three through six. OHA-3 Native Hawaiian Law Training Course: This bill ensures that Hawai'i's board and commission members are familiarized with their legal responsibilities regarding Native Hawaiian rights and the puhlie trust doctrine. As government entities, state boards and commissions regularly make decisions involving puhlie trust resources, and have an affirmative duty to protect and enforce the legal rights of Native Hawaiians. However, while board and commission members are often selected for their depth of expertise in a range of specialized areas, they may not necessarily have specific knowledge of their additional duties relating to Native Hawaiian rights and the puhlie trust. By requiring cer-

tain board and commission members to attend an OHA-sponsored training course on these topics, this bill provides these individuals with the tools they need to fulfill their legal responsibilities. OHA-4 Hawaiian Crops and SmallScale Farms: The State Planning Act establishes several objectives for Hawai'i's economy with respect to agriculture, including the continued viability of our sugar and pineapple industries; the growth and development of diversified agriculture; and the maintenance of agriculture as a dynamic and essential component of the state's strategic, eeonomie and social well-being. However, these objectives do not explicitly include the promotion of traditional farming methods or the development of small scale farms, as may be critical to maintaining our islands' food security in a changing climate. Accordingly, consistent with recommendations fromthe UnitedNations Commission on Trade and Development and the

Hawai'i State Taro Security and Purity Task Force, this measure updates the state's agricultural objectives to include the perpetuation, promotion and growth of traditional Hawaiian farming methods and crops, as well as the growth and development of small-scale farms. OHA-5 Hawaiian Plants in Public Landscaping: Native and Poly-nesian-introduced plants are an integral part of Hawai'i's unique cultural and ecological heritage, and their use in landscaping promotes a Hawaiian sense of plaee, cultural preservation, biodiversity, biosecurity and ecosystem management. Accordingly, the state procurement code was amended more than 15 years ago to require that native and Polynesian-introduced plants be used in publicly funded landscaping wherever and whenever feasible. Unfortunately, the current language of the law has not ensured that all new or renovated publicly funded landscaping projects uti-

lize Hawaiian plants, as originally envisioned by lawmakers. This bill amends the state procurement code to require that a clear and progressively increasing percentage of all future publicly funded landscaping projects utilize native and Polyne-sian-introduced plants. OHA-6 Data Collection on Children with Incarcerated Parents: A growing body of national research demonstrates that children whose parents are incarcerated may subsequently experience great trauma. This measure takes a long-awaited first step toward identifying and addressing the unique needs of Hawai'i's keiki with incarcerated parents. It requires the Department of Public Safety, through its prisoner intake centers, to collect or coordinate the collection of data on the number of parents entering the prison system, the number of ehildren of such parents and any other information the department may find useful in facilitating services

to meet these keiki's needs. OHA-7 Public Land Trust Revenue Reporting: Enacted in 2006, Act 178 established OHA's interim pro rata share of public land trust revenues at $15.1 million annually and requires state agencies to report all public land trust receipts to the Legislature annually. OHA worked with the Office of the Attorney General and the state agencies to conduct a Ananeial review of the public land trust receipts for fiscal year 2012. The preliminary findings of this review indicate that significant public land trust receipts went unreported in the state's fiscal year 2012 Act 178 report. Some, but not all, of these omissions were correctedinthe2013and2014Actl78 reports. Accordingly, this resolution requests that the executive branch provide accurate and complete Act 178 reports. ■ Sterīing Wong is OHA's Puhli.e Poli.cy manager.

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