House Standing Committee on Finance

Okay, we're going to reconvene the Committee on Finance for decision making for yesterday's Agenda 330 agenda. First up is Senate Bill 1419 SD1HD1. Recommendation is to defective date to 7 1 3000 technical amendments. Any discussion? Okay, thank you. Vice Chair for the vote.

Voting on SB 1419, SD1HD1 recommendations to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair vote aye. Representative Grandinetti aye. Representative Holt. Representative Hussey is excused. Representative Keo Hokapu Lee Loy.

First up is Senate Bill 1490.

Representative Kush. Kush. Yes, sir. A ghost and machine. Aye. Representative Lamosao. Representative Lee. Aye. Representative Miyake. Representative Morikawa. Representative Templo. Aye. Representative Alcos. Aye. Representative Reyes Oda. Aye. And Representative Warren's excused Chair. Recommendations adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 298, SD1HD1 as is discussion.

Vice Chair voting on SB298. It puts SD1HD1 recommendations to pass unamended, noting the excused absences of Representatives Hussey and Ward, who will be noted as excused for the remaining of this agenda unless otherwise noted. Are there any Members voting with reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 960, SD1HD1. We're going to be defecting the date to 7 1, 3000 technical amendments. Any discussion?

Vice Chair, SB 960, SD1HD1 recommendations to pass unamended or sorry with amendments. Any Members voting with reservations. Any nos recommendations adopted?

Okay, thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 952. SD2 defecting the date 7 1, 3000 technical amendments. Any discussion?

Vice Chair, SB 952, SD2 recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any NOS recommendations adopted?

Okay, thank you. Senate Bill 3304. SD1HD1 Moving the defecting the date to 7 1, 3000 technical amendments. Discussion.

Vice Chair, SB 304 SD1HD1. Recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Thank you. Senate Bill 264, SD1 defecting 7 1, 3000 technical amendments. Any discussion?

Vice Chair, SB264 SD1 recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Okay, thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 428. We're going to be blanking out the increase. Defective date 7 1, 3000 technical amendments. Any discussion?

Vice Chair, SB428 recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Okay, thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 1316 SD1HD1, 7 1, 3000 Technical amendments. Discussion.

Vice Chair, SB 1316, SD1, HD1 Recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any nos? Recommendations adopted?

Next. Senate Bill 662SD1HD2 same thing. 7 1, 3000 technical amendments discussion. Please take the vote.

SB 622SD1, HD2 recommendation is to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Senate Bill 414SD2HD2 as is discussion.

SB 414SD2, HD2 recommendation is to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Okay. Moving on to Senate Bill 65 SD2HD1 as is discussion.

Vice Chair, SB65SD2HD1 recommendations to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendations adopted.

Senate Bill 576, SD1HD1 defecting the date to 7 1, 3000 technical amendments. Any discussion?

Vice Chair, SB576SD1, HD1 recommendations to pass with amendments. Any reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Moving on to the next Bill. Senate Bill 1229 SD2HD1 as is discussion.

Vice Chair, SB1229SD2HD1 recommendations to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any nos? Recommendations adopted.

Okay, thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 572SD1HD1 as is discussion.

Vice Chair, SB572SD1, HD1 recommendations to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any nos recommendations adopted?

Senate Bill 26 SD2 HD2 as is discussion. Register.

SB 26 SD2, HD2 recommendations to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any noes? Recommendations adopted?

Okay. Senate. Moving on to Senate Bill 1002 SD2HD2 as is discussion.

Vice Chair, SB1002SD2, HD2 recommendations to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any NOS recommendations adopted?

Okay, thank you. Moving on to Senate Bill 826 SD1HD1 as is discussion.

Vice Chair, SB 826 SD1, HD1 recommendations to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any no's? Recommendations adopted.

Okay. And last Bill on the agenda, Senate Bill 944SD2HD1 as is discussion.

SB 944SD2HD1 recommendations to pass, unamended. Any reservations? Any. Any NOS recommendations adopted?

Okay, thank you. We're going to adjourn this agenda, move on to the next one where.

Adjourned.

Okay, we're going to convene our Committee on Finance for today's agenda. Two p.m. agenda. First up is Senate Bill 1571 SD2HD2, Vice Chair.

First we have the Hawaii Tourism Authority with comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, my name is Caroline Anderson. I'm the Interim President and CEO for the Hawaii Tourism Authority, and we stand on our written comments. I just wanted to also share out our newly elected board chair, Tadapo, is also watching this on Zoom.

If you have any questions for him, he can answer it as well. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Hawaii Government Employees Association in opposition. Thank you. We also received testimony from DBEDT in support and one individual in opposition. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, questions, members? Okay, thank you very much. We're going to move on to the next bill. Senate Bill 583, SD2HD1. Vice Chair.

First we have the Department of the Attorney General with comments.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, members, Ian Robertson, Deputy Attorney General. We've submitted testimony submitting comments expressing concerns that this bill may violate the single subject requirement of Section 14, Article Three of the state constitution. And we have suggested deleting some language to avoid that issue. Thank you.

Thank you. We have DBEDT, the stadium authority, in support. Department of Budget and Finance with comments.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Luis Salaveria, Director of Finance. We'll stand on our testimony providing comments. Just cautioning the Committee with regards to the utilization of naming rights, especially for facilities that are financed with tax-exempt bonds.

We just want to make sure that we don't come cross with the IRS when it comes to again, private activity and private use on government facilities. Thank you, Chair. Be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. We have Hawaii Tourism Authority with comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, members of the committee, we stand on our written testimony with comments. Thank you.

Thank you. We have the outdoor circle in opposition on Zoom. Winston Welch.

Yes, aloha. Can you hear me?

Yes. Please proceed.

Yes. Thank you. Chair Yamashita and Finance Committee members. We stand on our written testimony in total opposition to the naming bill rights. This was very similar to last year's bill, where the public overwhelmingly unanimously testified against this. There's no oversight rules, lease terms.

There's an incumbent loss of cultural and historic identity when we take Hawaiian names and historical place names and slap a corporate label on them. We feel it's a violation of our strong anti-advertising laws that we've had in the state for over a century.

As well as we have a commitment to preservation, not commercialization of these spaces forward.

So we would ask that in fact you have an opposite bill where we protect native place names, historical sites from corporate branding, maintain the public ownership of this and facility over corporate names, and explore alternative funding mechanisms that do not commercialize our cultural and historic places. This is already being done. University of Hawaii does it quite well.

I think there's a, this bill seems premature for other ways, but also the concerns of the tax-exempt bonds is enough alone to stop this bill today. And we hope that you take our written testimony with all seriousness because we are looking at something like this reversing 100 years of our very protected and cherished advertising laws.

So thank you very much for your time today and consideration.

Thank you. That's all the mem. That's all the testimony indicating that they'd be here in person. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Please just state your name and position for the record.

Aloha. Angela Melody Young testifying in strong support of cares. I'm just a community advocate, but as a member of the public, I'd like to be in support of this because it's for a potential funding mechanism beyond the the city and the state's funding, and it's not going to be from the taxpayers' dollars. Right.

So it's above and beyond the city and the state's funding sources. And so I think this can be very helpful for a private corporate company to do sponsorship for the Aloha Stadium and the Hawaii Convention Center. It helps with lessening the burden of the city and state.

And also so the lease naming rights to stadium facility and the convention center creates the corporate sponsorship where a company pays to have its name on a stadium or the convention center. Right.

So it allows a company to purchase for exclusive rights the name to the venue, the building, the event, or the facility in exchange for a fee or other benefits.

So utilizing this name rights agreement, it provides the name rights deal of a significant source of revenue for facility owners to help with offsetting the construction costs, player salaries, and other expenses.

So let's say for the football team stadium and also we can see that in other states it is possible because the Staples Center and as well as the sports facility MetLife Stadium, as well as there are Disney name rights for Disney to purchase the facility space.

For example, Disney Marvel Studios acquired the naming rights to Melbourne's stadium, which was renamed the Marvel Stadium after the superheroes theme.

And then Disney has a dedicated licensing department to handle these sorts of requests within Disney's intellectual property rights and including characters and titles of how to use Disney as a corporate sponsorship to lessen the burden for state and city funding sources.

So, from my understanding of corporate sponsorships, it is possible to help with creating a separate funding source. Right. For funding mechanism to be deposited into the Stadium Development Special Fund. Thank you.

Thank you. Sorry, members. We also had 17 other individuals in opposition. Anybody else in the room? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, questions, members? Okay, thank you very much. Okay, we're gonna. Yes. Oh, oh. Who's. Who? Anybody want to raise their hand? Go ahead.

He can go first.

Thank you. For the Attorney General. Just reading your comments. These are your suggested amendments. Do you feel like this tightens it up enough that it remains just with the Stadium Development Special Fund and it doesn't have the ability to, like, creep to other, you know, it's very specific.

Yeah. These amendments were intended to take the items out of the bill that aren't related to naming rights. So it does maintain the language around the naming rights and the revenue streams from naming rights.

Okay, and do you see anything in here that would preclude, if there was a larger private role in developing the stadium, does this hinder that at all versus a larger public role? I know.

I think it would depend on what that language looked like. It's a very narrow title, naming rights. So anything that went into this bill would need to be within the scope of naming rights to not create the constitutional concern.

Okay, thank you.

Representative Reyes Oda.

Question to Budget and Finance. Thank you, Mr. Salaveria. According to your written testimony, you wrote that you thought that there may be issues with allowing to lease the naming rights for, for some of the, for, for these issues relating to the federal tax law with restrictions. Can you tell me about, or tell us about the federal rules or any issues that you thought you were writing about?

So specifically, it pertains to private activity use on facilities that were financed using federally tax-exempt bonds. So there is a prohibition on essentially, again, private activity, basically getting some kind of monetary benefit off of a facility.

In this particular case, if I can be clear, I think the idea of creating and utilizing different forms of revenue streams is a good one. But what we need to be careful of is how these facilities are financed. Like in the case of the stadium, the stadium could be financed using taxable bonds instead of tax-exempt bonds.

That would, the prohibition wouldn't apply. But in the case of the convention center, because the convention center has gone and has used tax-exempt bonds specifically in the ongoing repair and maintenance of that facility, there may be outstanding tax-exempt bonds on that facility. That could be problematic.

So in your testimony, you said that, I guess, according to what you say, if we did do a violation, what would the cost be, or an estimate as to remediating any violations?

You know, it's hard to say at this point in time. I mean, general rule of thumb is whatever outstanding bonds are that haven't been defeated yet, and the benefit of that tax exemption, I guess the state could be subject to repaying the federal government.

Okay, thank you.

Yes.

Okay. Thank you. Any further questions, members? Moving on to the next b bill, Senate Bill 1491 SD1HD1.

Further questions? Okay, just to be clear, Director, so if, if it was a new facility and it was using taxable bonds, it'd be fine?

First, we have the Department of Taxation in support.

Good afternoon, Gary.

Thank you. We have DBEDT in support.

Aloha Kakako, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, my name is Thomas Chalk with the Department of Business, Economic Development Tourism. On behalf of Director James Tokioka, we stand on our testimony in support of this treasure. Mahalo.

Thank you. University of Hawaii System in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee, I'm Kara Plommon Wagner, the Director of Institutional Research for the University of Hawaii System. I'm here on behalf of the Office of the Vice President for Academic Strategy to say that we also stand on our written testimony and I'm here to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you.

We have Tax Foundation of Hawaii with comments on Zoom.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chairman of the Committee, Tom Yamachika from Tax Foundation. We send our written testimony and are available for questions.

Thank you. We have Hawaii Kids Can.

Aloha. Chair, Vice Chair. Members of the Committee, my name is Erica Nakanishi Stanis. I'm here on behalf of Hawaii Kids Can. We would like to submit testimony in support of this measure in recognition of the excellent work that the DXP has produced. We think that expanding partnerships to increase visibility is always a good thing.

In particular, given the dire need around workforce outcomes that we see. Thank you.

Thank you, Members. We also received testimony and support from Hawaii P20 partnerships for education. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom questions?

Members, thank you. We're going to move on to the next bill. Senate Bill 742 SD2 HD1.

Okay. First, we have the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations in support.

Good afternoon, Chair Yamashita Vice Chair Takenouchi and Members of the Finance Committee. My name is Cindy Ng and I'm here to to testify on behalf of the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. The Department stands on its written testimony and I'll be here to answer any questions that the Committee may have. Thank you. Thank you.

We have the Office of Enterprise Technology Services in support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee, My name is Christine Secuda and I am the state Chief Information Officer in the Office of Enterprise Technical Technology Services, which is a division of the Department of Accounting and General Services.

And I just wanted to offer some additional information to our testimony and strong support that within ETS we have a data task force. And the purpose of that data task force is to establish data guidelines, data sharing guidelines. And the Bill, SB742 really focuses on establishing a data working group.

And the purpose of that working group is to collaborate, you know, action that's needed to enable the data sharing itself. So it's a. It's a very active working group. We ask for two staff Members to support the working group and the activities of working group is a very large working group.

We want to make sure that the efforts are actually coordinated.

Well, we also ask that the sunset date be changed to June 302027 so it's extended a little bit more time to give the working group time to do the work and that the report be submitted to the ledge within the same period in the 2027 legislative session.

And so data sharing is critical, as you know, to inform decision making, having the right data at the right time to make the right decisions. And this working group is really tasked with enabling that to happen. So happy to answer any questions and thank you for the opportunity to testify. Mahalo.

Thank you. We have the Executive Office on Early Learning in support.

Hi, Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi, Members of the Committee, I'm Yuko Arikawa Cross, Director of the Executive Office on Early Learning. We stand on our written testimony and support. Thank you. Thank you.

University of Hawaii System with comments.

Good afternoon once again, Chair. Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, I'm Kara Plommen Wagner from the Institutional Research Analysis and Planning Office at the University of Hawaii System.

I'm here on behalf of the Office of the Vice President for Academic Strategy to say that we stand on our comments, our written testimony, and I'm here to answer any questions. Thank you. Thank you.

Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women in support.

Good afternoon. Chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. Yasmeen Cheney, Executive Director for the Hawaii State Commission on the Status of Women. We stand on our written testimony in strong support of this measure and I'm available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Hawaii Kids Can in support.

Hello again. Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takenouchi, Members of the Committee, my name is Erica Nakanishi Stenis, Hawaii Kids Can. We stand on our written testimony in strong support of this measure.

The value is in the potential for a permanent data sharing structure that we're looking at that goes beyond a single issue, a single moment in time, or a single agency. There are a lot of questions we know to ask right now. Workforce development outcomes in bill 1491 is a good example of that.

But there are also many questions we don't know to ask historically.

If we look at the impacts of AI, that's a good example of a question maybe we didn't see coming 10 years ago, but that would have benefited from having cross agency data sharing and a working group of people committed to asking those questions in anticipation, not reflexively. Right.

This bill's value is seen, I think, most clearly in the number of agencies, offices and entities that have asked to become a part of it. Usually people don't want to attend working groups and more meetings. People are asking to be a part of this and that's because they see value in what it is proposing.

In light of the federal upheaval and data scrubbing that we're seeing on websites across the government, we are losing data, we are losing access to transparency and data that we need to make good decisions for our state. I think one suggested amendment that we would like to support is ETS's request that the working group sunset in 2027.

There's a saying, if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. Right.

And in order to give the working group the time that it needs to go with everybody to take advantage of best practices in other places and to make sure we understand the status quo here, one year is not enough to do that. Thank you for the opportunity to testify on this bill and we appreciate your time.

Thank you. We have the Hawaii Workforce Funders Collaborative and support on Zoom.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, I'm Matt Stevens with the Hawaii Workforce Funders Collaborative and we stand on our written testimony in strong support of this bill.

As a state, we're making major investments in workforce development, but right now we don't have the data systems in place to be able to measure the long term outcomes that would tell us which investments are truly leading to better results for students and job seekers.

Without this, we limit our ability to refine programs in ways that could strengthen our state's economy and we cannot build those systems without multi agency data governance. As others have mentioned, other states have already solved this problem, though five years ago in a different role.

I worked with the Colorado Workforce Development Council on a similar cross sector data sharing initiative. And I saw firsthand how modernizing workforce data systems could transform economic planning.

By integrating employment and education data, Colorado was able to track which programs led to good jobs, could adjust strategies in real time, could reduce administrative burden, and most importantly, could provide job seekers with real time information that they needed to make informed career decisions.

As others have mentioned, the data governance apparatus that unlocked all of this was then able to be used for other use cases in public services, public health, and the list goes on and on. The main lesson that I took from that experience is this successful data sharing requires more than just agents, agreements or technologies.

It really requires dedicated staff whose job it is to sustain collaboration across agencies because no Single Department has the capacity to manage that alone. And that's why this working group is so important.

It provides the structure and the staffing needed to ensure that data sharing is not just a one time initiative, but an ongoing strategy that strengthens Hawaii's workforce and economic development over time. I thank you for your consideration of this bill and I'm happy to answer any questions.

Thank you everybody. I have checked in Members. Also testimony in support from the Office of the Governor, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Office of Wellness and Resilience, Department of Human Services, Ulupuna Initiative, and one individual. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify?

Anybody on Zoom questions, Members? Okay, thank you. We're going to move on to the next bill. Senate Bill 183 SD1 HD1.

First we have the Department of Budget and Finance in opposition. Thank you. Department of Human Resources Development and comments. Thank you. UPW in support.

Hello Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Kamakanakaimala Government Affairs Manager for United Public Workers. You have a written testimony and we will actually stand on a written testimony. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. HGA in support.

Chair, Vice Chair, Members, Nui Sebast here with hgea. We'll send out our testimony and strong support. But I do want to emphasize that the current negotiation process for employee employer contributions to the EUTF lacks a dispute mechanism.

So kind of what, you know, we're asking for you folks to consider is allowing us to fairly bargain this negotiable item. Thank you.

Thank you. That's everybody I have checked in. We also have University of Hawaii Professional Assembly and Hawaii State AFL CIO in support. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Any questions Members? Thank you. We're going to move on to the next Bill 1359 SHD1.

First we have the Hawaii Employer Union Health Benefits Trust Fund in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Derek Mizuno, ETF Administrator. We stand on our written testimony in strong support. Thank you.

Thank you. That's everybody who indicated they'd be here with us today. Also, testimony and support from the Oahu District, Hawaii State Teacher Association, retired. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom questions?

Members, thank you.

Moving on to Senate Bill 1360 SD1 HD1, the Employees Retirement System of the State of Hawaii, in support.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, I'm Tom Williams, the Executive Director of the Employees Retirement System. You have our testimony. We see this as an administrative or housekeeping matter. We're attempting to conform the requirements for minimum distributions from our program with those imposed by the Internal Revenue Service.

That's important to maintain the funds tax exemption. We appreciate your consideration of this Bill and I'm available to answer questions. Thank you.

Thank you. That's all the written testimony we've received. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Any questions, Members? Thank you. We're going to move on to the next Bill. Senate Bill 1361.

We have testimony and support from the Employee's Retirement System.

Once again, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Tom Williams of the ers. This Bill attempts to separate the dates on which the ERS is required to audit employer compliance with reporting of employer contributions and other personnel data to the ERS from the report to the Legislature.

Presently, the audit and the reports of the Legislature are required in the same fiscal year. And this change would allow us to audit in one fiscal year and report to the Legislature and the very next one. I'm available to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. So the testimony we've received for this measure. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Eight questions? Thank you. Moving on to the next Bill, Senate Bill 935sd2hd2.

We have Department of Budget and Finance with comments.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Louis Oliveira, Director of Finance. We will stand on our written comments, but we just wanted to highlight a specific provision when the Bill that creates a separate new class for a specific type of employee within the state.

We believe that this could have some significant repercussions on the state's unfunded liability going forward. So we have some serious concerns with that portion of the Bill and I'll be happy to answer any questions that you may have. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. EUTF with comments.

Thank you. Employees Retirement System with comments.

Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Tom Williams of the Employees Retirement System. The ERS would like to provide comments on both sections 1 and 2 of this Bill. Section 1 of the Bill, as we understand it, would provide enhanced retirement benefits for sheriffs and deputy sheriffs.

There's a current statute that precludes benefit enhancements until we're fully 100% funded. But you have our written testimony that identifies a number of concerns related to the Bill.

It's not clear as to the full eligibility, whether or not there would be retroactivity, nor are the contributions that would be required in order to provide funding for enhanced benefits by either the employee or the employer included in this record. And it would potentially adversely impact the ERS unfunded liability.

The second portion of the Bill relates to reduction in the vesting period applicable to entitlement to ERS retirement benefits for Tier 2 employees. Tier 1 employees currently enjoy vesting after five years of service. In 2012, that was changed for Tier 2 to increase it to 10 years of service.

We think a change back to five years would strengthen the funding of the program. It would serve to recruit and retain workers in the system and ultimately Fund the unfunded liability.

Perhaps more quickly, tier 2 employees contribute the same as tier 1 employees, but more of their dollars go to Fund our unfunded liability because they actually, while contributing similarly, have dramatically less in terms of benefits or liability. I'm available to answer any questions you might have.

Thank you. We have UPW in support.

Hello, Chair, Vice Chair, Members again, Kama Kaana Kaimaloa, upw. You have our written testimony. We strongly support part two of this Bill. We do believe that decreasing the vesting period for employees could help the employers with recruitment and retention and more importantly, recruiting past public employees back into service. Happy to answer any questions. Mahalo.

Thank you. HDEA in support. Thank you. That's everybody. We have checked in. Also testimony and support from the office of the Governor, Dlir hsta. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Great questions. Thank you. Moving on to the next Bill, Senate Bill 1567 SD1HD1.

First, we have Department of Human Resources Development and Support.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, I'm Brianna Hashimoto, Director of the Department of Human Resources Development. I'll stand on my written testimony and support, but I just wanted to highlight a couple of things for the Committee's consideration.

Dheard is strongly supportive of this measure, which would allow us to contract with a vendor to help us review the classification and compensation system for our civil service employees. I think many of us know that many of our classifications are outdated and the minimum qualification requirements need to. Need to be refreshed and reviewed.

And we simply don't have the manpower within our own Department to accomplish this in a timely and efficient manner. So the funds for this project would enable us to do that. And so we appreciate your consideration. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. We have holomua Collaborative in support. Thank you. That's all the written testimony we've received. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom questions?

Members, thank you. Moving on to the next Bill. Senate Bill 1065 SD2HT1.

First we have the Department of Budget and Finance with comments. Thank you. Department of Accounting and General Services in support.

Chair Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, on behalf of Comptroller Keith riggin. I am Dr. Adam Jansen. I am the state archivist and administrator of the public archives. I've been asked to testify on this in our support of this Bill because I have a rather unique perspective.

20 years as a hiring professional as well as teaching graduate programs both locally on the continent and internationally. So I have a very unique perspective of the difference between academic knowledge and work knowledge.

And while it is true that technically a degree is not required, if you read the wording on how do you make that determination of work experience being the equivalency of four years of degree seeking undergraduate. How do you quantify that? It is so obliquely written that nobody knows what qualifies and what doesn't. And let's be honest.

I spent 20 years in college. I'm a slow learner. During my undergraduate I took social dance, judo, two semesters of welding. Should that qualify for a professional position? Yet we're cheating that as the bar. It should be the other way around. Work experience and then degree coursework in that field should count. Not social dance.

Why am I getting credit for that? So thank you for the opportunity to share my manao. I am always happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Department of Human Resources Development with comments.

Again. Brenna Hashimoto. I just wanted to from deheard. I just wanted to point out that of the Executive branch's 1458 civil service classes of work, none of them require a bachelor's degree as an absolute requirement unless it's required by law.

All of our civil service classifications provide a substitution of professional experience for for a degree requirement with the exception of things like nurses, social workers, architects, engineers, where there's a legal requirement for having a degree. Thank you. I'm available for any questions.

Thank you. We have the State Council on Developmental Disabilities in support.

Thank you Vice Chair, chair, Committee managers, Dane Chip Artolis, Executive Director for the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities. We stand in strong support of this measure. For us, lived experiences matter.

So a parent of a child with a disability or a family Member, that experience really has a lot of value, and it adds to our team when we hire somebody with that. So it's not always the degree. Thank you so much.

Thank you. That's. Everybody have checked in. Also testimony and support from the Grassroots Institute of Hawaii and three individuals. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom questions?

Members, thank you. I'm. Take a stab. Okay. Representative Lewis from Budget and Finance, please.

Good afternoon, Representative.

Yes, thank you. Appreciate it. So looking at this would. And I understand the state's predicament. There is a lot of positions that are. I know in ag, we heard a lot from the Department of Ag about, like, pesticide use being a college degree position, but really more like work in the field might be also really applicable.

You, of course, you're in finance and budgeting and accounting. You're attracting those kind of graduates. Would something like this preclude you from creating a preferential?

Like, let's say I came to you from Joe's Accounting Service and I had 10 years versus, you know, next person who had a college degree in accounting, give you options or like the way.

That we read the Bill, and I know that there are provisions in the Bill that allow for the appointing authority to make the determination on whether or not a bachelor's degree would be required for it.

That being said, sometimes the application of the law may not necessarily be very clearly articulated, but I think, especially in the field that I deal with, you know, primarily when you're talking about, say, for example, economic theory, on some of the things that we're doing with.

I mean, and no offense to anybody, I would like the person that's working for me to probably have learned that from somebody who has a PhD for example. Not TikTok. Not TikTok. Yes. So. So I think that you.

Again, maybe it's not clearly defined within the provisions of how this law is written, but I caution the Committee in terms of how the Bill is written, it could potentially cause some challenges in probably some of the other departments like mine, for example.

Okay. So it could tie your hands.

It could tie my hands. Yeah.

Is there any amendments that you would see? I'm sorry, Chair. Go ahead. Stop me.

I think. And this is not my forte per se, but I think from the standpoint of, you know, specific credit requirements or if you.

If, say, for example, we're looking for an individual that received a bachelor's degree that had, you know, or, you know, we wanted to see, you know, some type of formal education around, you know, specific accounting principles or, for example, like generally accepted accounting principles, you know, getting that education, say, for example, at an institution, you know, kind of lends to the idea that maybe, you know, the individual that's teaching it has.

Knows what they're doing.

Sure, sure. So as I understand what you're saying, though, with this Bill, you would take away your ability to ask for a college education in a position.

I'm not clear on how the Bill written. It does say that the appointing authority has the discretion to do that. So, you know, I can touch base with, you know, with our D. Her Department on whether or not, you know, we can make that determination at the departmental level.

Okay, thank you. That's just. My concern is just, you know, wanted to open and not, you know, tie hands. Sure. So thank you for your input. I appreciate it. Thank you, Chair.

Thank you. Further questions. Thank you. Moving on to the next Bill, Senate Bill 447 HD1.

We have the Department of Human Resources Development in opposition.

Aloha Branaghimoto, Director of DHRD I. We submitted written testimony in opposition to this measure, and I'll just highlight the basis for our opposition. First and foremost, I would like to say that DHRD fully supports streamlining hiring efforts within the state Executive branch.

We've taken on a number of initiatives in the last year which demonstrate our willingness to work with departments to speed up hiring and to minimize delays. However, this particular measure violates the state constitution and Chapter 76 when it comes to civil service merit principles.

And specifically, it undermines our equal pay for equal work provisions as well as our equal employment opportunity provisions. And it provides the Department of Health the ability to pay whatever they want to hire in whomever they want without by circumventing the civil service merit principles. And for those reasons, we object to this measure.

I'm available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. We have State Health Planning and Development agency in support. Dr. Lewin. Thank you.

HGA in support. Thank you. In support on Zoom, we have Cesar Santiago.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee. I'm Cesare Santiago, and speaking on behalf of myself, I am in support of. This bill as written in my testimony. Mahalo.

Thank you. That's all the written testimony we've received in this measure. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom.

Questions? Okay. Thank you. We're going to move on to the next Bill. Senate Bill 479, SD1.

We have the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities and support. Thank you.

Vice Chair, Committee Members, Dean Schubartos, Executive Director for the Hawaii State Council on Developmental Disabilities. We stand in strong support of this measure, especially now that Medicaid is kind of. We're kind of concerned about the funding for Medicaid.

This will help us educate people on able accounts how you could save money over $2,000 up to $100,000 without affecting your benefits. We have over 100,000 individuals that are eligible for Hawaii Able that they could apply for here in Hawaii, and we have less than a little over 200.

Just because for decades we've been telling people not to do this and don't put your information online. And ABLE accounts are only online. So that's something we want to educate people.

By giving us a staff, we could educate departments and other individuals on how to do this so we could promote Able and get people to be more independent. Thank you so much for this opportunity. Thank you.

Apologies. Also Department of Budget and Finance and support. Thank you. That's everybody. I have checked in. Also testimony and support from Council Member Bulasan from Kauai County Council, Easterseals Hawaii Hawaii Self advocacy advisory council, Wakna Hawaii Hawaii Disability Rights center, and about 16 individuals. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify?

Please state your name and position for the record.

Angela Melody Young, testifying in strong support of the measure to equip those with disabilities and for those who are debilitated from making functional decisions to equip the marginalized and very vulnerable population with the tools to achieve financial empowerment and help to prepare for a secure future through this very simple and intuitive online savings opportunity.

So I think that if the repeal of the statutory language to, I think, cross out the Budget Director is necessary, as the Bill is being proposed, then shouldn't there be someone else to advise, for example, the Attorney General?

I'm not sure, though, because I'm just a community advocate and a Member of the public, but I think, as I've read and have participated in a few of the discussions at the City Council and the Hawaii State Capitol, is that the Attorney General has a broad supervisory authority over charitable purposes, including trusts, foundations, and also nonprofit corporations and so, for example, the Attorney General can initiate litigation or intervene in existing litigation concerning charitable trusts to enforce a trust's terms.

And although what we're talking about within this Bill is not a nonprofit trust, it is a trust within the state's funding structure. It can be comparable to what the Attorney General represents in terms of public interests and also trust funds. So the Attorney General can ensure the actions of fiduciary duties to such disability populations.

So from my understanding of the reading of the Bill, if there's going to be someone not going to be included, then shouldn't they include someone else? Right. Okay. Yeah. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else in the room? Anybody on zoom?

Chair, Vice Chair, James Labrie and Raymond Mamea.

Okay, please go ahead.

My name is James Gobi and I will stand on my written testimony for SB479SD1, and I'll be available for any questions. Thank you for this opportunity to testify on this very important deal.

And Raymond Mamiya, Chair, Vice Chair.

Please go ahead. My name is Raymond. I strongly support SD479s t y. Able. Saving the car because it's important for anyone with developmental disability to have their owners stay in the account so they can have money and they can. Spend. It on however they want to. Thank you for this.

Thank you. Anybody else on zoom?

Okay, Members, questions? Okay, thank you. We're going to move on to the next Bill. Senate Bill 1281 SD2HD1.

Do we have the Department of Human Services and support on zoom?

Aloha. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Judy Moore Peterson. On behalf of the Department of Human Services, we stand on our written testimony and in support of this Bill. Thank you. And available for any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Hawaii State Health Planning and Development Agency, Shipta, in support.

Chair, Vice Chair, a Member of the Committee. We certainly support this Bill and a. Lot will depend in terms of Federal funding.

Zero, Dr. Lune, sorry. If you're going to make additional comments, can you speak into the mic? Thank you.

There are some uncertainties in federal funding that, you know, make the future completely unclear. But we will need telehealth and telemedicine for. To address our workforce shortage and to really reach out and try to expand primary care access for people. So this Bill is very important.

It might need a sunset date on it if we want to look and see what happens in terms of the federal funding and other sources of funding. But it is an important measure for the moment. Thank you.

Thank you. We have the Hawaii Association of Health Plans in support. Thank you. HMSA in support. Thank you. Do we have the Hawaii Mental Health Coalition in support on zoom?

Aloha. I'm Melissa Pavlicek. I'm testifying on behalf of the Hawaii. Mental Health Coalition, the Hawaii Psychological Association, the National Association of Social Workers, the Hawaiian Islands Association for Marriage and Family. Therapy and Hawaii Counselors Association. We strongly support this measure. We, we actually support lifting the sunset on the audio only telehealth altogether.

But this, this Bill will allow us. To move forward and please support it. Thank you very much.

Thank you. That's everybody. I have checked in. Also. Also testimony and support from the Department of Health, Office of Hawaiian Affairs, University of Hawaii System, State Council on Mental Health, nine other organizations and one individual. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Yes. Aloha. This is Michelle Christy Kohine. Please go ahead. Okay. Aloha chair, Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Kristi Kohine. I'm the Director of Tech Equity at Wanae Coast Comprehensive Health Center. I am submitting oral testimony today and I would like to acknowledge that I also submitted written testimony, albeit slightly late.

I just wanted to ensure the Committee had both forms of our support with comments for SB 1281 as FQHC serving vulnerable and underserved populations. We strongly support this Bill as Telehealth, as Dr. Nguyen had mentioned, is critical for our communities and for some it is definitely a lifeline.

We also want to make sure that audio only services are made available as many of our patients who are low income kupuna unsheltered and are experiencing and or experiencing reliable broadband connectivity really rely on audio only telehealth for their care. For the barriers that I just mentioned, including digital literacy. So telehealth addresses transportation and mobility barriers.

I think we realize the benefits over this COVID 19 pandemic and then again, it really has been a lifeline for mental health as well as primary care services.

In addition, we support making audio only telehealth permanently available for all patients and also supporting extending Act 107 as it pertains to Chapter 346 hrs to ensure that audio only telehealth remains reimbursable and therefore accessed and utilized as a vital tool in improving access to health care. Mahalo for the opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Anybody else on zoom?

Okay, questions, Members? Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to the next bill, Senate Bill 1448 SD2 HD2 OHD1.

We have the Department of Accounting and General Services in support and Department of Health and support.

Thank you. Sorry. Also, that's everyone who has checked in. Also testimony and support from the State Council on Mental Health. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, questions. Represent Mama Sal. For DYGs.

For DYGs.

I understand your concern. Okay. Part of this $2.4 million comprehensive study is to help us to get our arms around that there is in HB 300 HD1 there was a portion there, 29 million set aside.

Well, I see in your testimony that you need to make some changes as far as your request for this bill. So that's. That's construction and also legal fees, is that correct?

Could you repeat that last part again, please?

Is that construction and legal fees? That is correct, yes.

Thank you.

So I think. Can I have a follow up, Chair?

Yep.

Please. Going forward, you know, when it comes to providing our contractors a punch list of things like whose responsibility is it to make sure that they had made appropriate, I guess, changes and things that. So we wouldn't be in this position right now.

I see. Okay. Through construction, we do construction management. This was a design build project, which is a little bit different from our usual design bid build or low bid projects. Okay. And so the design builder also provided internal construction management of their own activities. Then we oversaw their construction management through our devices and so through that.

That's the mechanism for getting them to make corrections and so forth during construction. After construction, then we bring in our internal expertise on warranty management. And as we were doing that, then we uncovered these sort of construction defects that had gone undetected during construction.

So is it your responsibility or is it the contractor's responsibility to make sure that. Who declares it's a defect?

Okay. For a design build project, that is primarily the responsibility of the design builder. Okay. And that's one of the beauties of design build. You have a single point of responsibility. As I say, we had oversight on their construction management to try to assure that their construction management was of high quality.

Obviously there were some issues with that, I guess.

Thank you. Thanks, Chair. Thanks, Gordon, for being here. Been barking over this poem for a little bit for. And when I read your comments, it's $10 million, 8 for repair and maintenance, but 2 million in legal fees.

Actually, let me clarify. Okay, thanks. We have 2 million for legal fees. We initially came in with 6.6. The that would take care of remediation of mold and repairs to prevent mold from reoccurring. Okay.

As the legislative session bore on, we realized that we would need another $100,000 to install ultraviolet lighting in the air conditioning ducts to prevent the reoccurrence of mold.

We had a separate proposal for a CIP Bill that would include a $2.4 million comprehensive study of the facility so that we could uncover as many as possible of the construction defects that occur there.

When that CIP Bill appeared not to be going forward, we thought that it would be critical to move that 2.4 million into this emergency appropriation because that study will be really necessary to assure that as we move forward on trying to repair this building and correct the construction defects, that we have the proper information in hand.

Yeah, thanks for that clarification. I think my large concern is just in the course of the last month, we still really haven't gotten our arms around that dollar amount to make the repairs. And there's no assurances that the dollar amount in any appropriation actually makes the repairs.

In fact, we believe that we at this point only need, I think it's 26.4 million out of that to address the things that we know of now as we conduct this comprehensive study may come up with other things, but part of that study is not just discovering the new defects, but also discovering how to address the defects that we know are there now.

Yeah. And I think building off of my colleague's point right where the checks and balances were, we wouldn't be making such a huge emergency appropriation had the checks during the inspection process occur.

And we've heard in other committees right through this design build process there was a set of plans, but those plans were out because that's a process that's allowed through design build and then back to the inspection process where we could have caught these defects prior to the inspection approval.

And I think rocks in hard places is where we're at right now. We're trying to get something fixed. You need a comprehensive study. But we also are approving legal fees and costs.

And we don't know where the recuperation for any of this is going to come because we're still trying to work nicely with the contractor and the project manager and the third party review. Maybe you don't have an answer.

I understand what you're getting at. We are continuing to try to work with the design builder to get them to resolve as many of these defects as they are willing to do. We realize that there are a number that they are simply unwilling to address also. Okay. On those we're being a little less friendly.

The reason for the $2 million in the allowance for the legal fees is so that we can move forward and recover the state's costs as we correct these deficiencies so that we can recover them from the design builder.

Okay. Yeah. Rocks and hard places. It would be great to have an after action report, especially as we go through the spend down of the emergency appropriation. We have heard for the course of the last month the Federal Administration is making it very tough for us to make very challenging decisions for safety net programs for the state.

Now we have this huge hiccup, I want to call it something else, but a huge hiccup that we're going to have to backfill so that we can get the safety net of a hospital up and running while other programs and other agencies stand and wait while the rug is being pulled out from under them.

Please help us with that.

As a Committee Member, I would urge the chair to get an after action report on the spend down, what kind of progress we're making along with whatever checks and balances we can provide in this process so that if there's another ask, which I strongly feel in my gut is going to come, if not this biennium, the next biennium, so that we can have a real honest conversation about how we don't have to do this again.

Thank you, Representative. Chair, I will assure you that we are working very diligently on trying to resolve this in a way that that hits the best value for the State of Hawaii.

Thank you. And get those legal fees back. Chair, thanks for the latitude on this one.

Thank you very much. Any further questions, Members? You know, because this is a, an emergency appropriation and the Members have a lot of concerns, could you like maybe, you know, you're asking for 10.6, $6 million in this EA. Okay, so you need 2.4 for the study. You need 2 million for this legal fees.

How else does it break out?

The other 6.16 is for mold remediation and that includes going into the air conditioning ducts and so forth, and then also repairs of some of the defects that we know are contributing to the occurrence of mold, water intrusions and things of this nature.

And then you're asking for all this to be in cache, correct?

That is correct, yes. This is an operating request.

Okay. All right. Yeah. At this point, we'll just keep it moving it forward. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, moving on to the next bill. Members. Anywell, any further questions? Members? Okay, represent Kush.

Sorry, just back for Dags. So. And maybe I always missed it with my colleagues across the way, but is there, do you feel bullish on recovering a lot of these monies.

As I say, we are continuing to work with the design builder to see what they will do on their own. We are also working with our attorneys to assure that we have a sound legal basis going forward. That's about as much as I can say at this point. Gotcha.

Thank you.

Okay, thank you for other questions, Members. Okay, thank you very much. Moving on to the next bill, Senate Bill 1422 SD1 HD1.

We have the Department of Health in support.

Good afternoon, chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Lauren Kim. I'm the planning and policy officer for the Department of Health. And the Department stands in strong support of this Administration bill. Very quickly, this repeals a special Fund, the birth defect special Fund at the office of the Auditor determined to not meet the criteria.

Our proposal is to take the monies that would be deposited into that Fund and put it into the vital statistics improvement special Fund. Another area of the Bill, as well as diverting from the General Fund, it also would redirect deposits from marriage license fees from that birth defect special fund to the vital statistics improvements special Fund.

And access to those resources is extremely important to the Department of Health. It would supplement future base budget requests as we try to keep up with costs. For example, postage just went up 5 cents. There are approximately 120,000 vital records requests every year.

And just to sort of give you a sense of what this gets at, so this is a special security paper that all birth, death and marriage certificates are printed on. They cost anywhere from 4 cents to 6 cents depending on how much you buy. To get the 4 cent deal, you have to buy 50,000.

And half of that is shipping. Half of the money we spend to ship reams of this paper here is shipping in addition to postage going up, everything is going up. Requests for vital records are going up. So just keeping up with costs, cost of toner, cost of printers is something that we desperately would like.

The flexibility of these additional revenues for more long term projects. I'll hold up a book. So the day to day stuff, we can always improve what we do. It's a terribly manual. It's an entirely manual process. During the pandemic, I was the acting state registrar.

I got to see firsthand people print something out from a printer here, walk it over to a sealer over there, fold it, stick it in an envelope. They're all done that way. And there is active planning to modernize our vital record system. Thank you. With the thanks of this previous Legislature's appropriating funding money.

But some of the other Issues, long term issues that we are actively planning for but have not identified. A revenue source to pay is we have a vault of books that go back to the kingdom. Some books, for example, I picked up the birth and death registry for the island of Molokai during the last king's reign.

And on one side of the book it says Haoli, on the other side it says make. And it's in beautifully written calligraphy, handwritten man and woman's name. Man is Hawaiian, Chinese woman is Hawaiian. That was the vital record back then. And we have books like this.

This is a 150-year-old book that you can see is kind of falling apart. And we need expertise to come and help us figure out how we preserve them. Another real treasure is a certificate of Hawaiian birth. This is onion skin paper. We have filing cabinets of these tens of thousands.

When Hawaii went from a kingdom to a territory, its residents were authorized to become US citizens. So people had to prove that you were born in Hawaii, which would grandfather you in if you were born elsewhere. There was another process for that. So to do that.

And it was really neat because I found my own dad's oldest brother's records from big island side. They would send government employees from the secretary of Hawaii and interview your family and all the people you knew that could prove you were born in Hawaii. So on my own dad's oldest brothers, it was the next door neighbor.

zero, do you remember Mrs. Kim being pregnant? Yeah. Well, how do you know her? Well, because all the Koreans on the east side of Hawaii were in the sewing machine parts business. So we all knew each other and they had a baby Lua on this day. It's wonderful treasure. And it is the next hurricane.

You know, it's a flat plain flood zone. Our records are on the first floor. All this stuff goes away and our basement is full of books. This Committee is welcome to a tour of the vital records vaults. You can see President Obama's birth certificate. Well, I can show you, I can show you the envelope.

I can show you the envelope which is in a vault, in a lockbox, in a vault, in a safe, in a vault. Can't show you the actual certificate, but this is part of the modernization of the vital records office that is sorely, sorely needed. Again.

Previous legislatures have given us planning money and we have short list of vendors, software vendors, who we think can do the job for us. We're making incremental changes. We really need to step up our customer service. Your constituents may have contacted you in the past for birth certificates that Took a year.

Call me if you need something expedited. But yeah, I mean, these are just invaluable treasures for Hawaii's cultural history. And I'm not saying that they're under threat, but we are actively thinking about how we preserve them to how we digitize them.

Usually, I would say usually, sometimes a state agency will come and say, we got to solve this problem. Give us the money, we'll figure it out. Well, this is so important, we're figuring it out now. And then we're looking for a source of revenues to come with our plan.

So again, the General Fund does take a $650,000 hit a year. We hope you won't miss it. But it would come back to our Vital Records Special Fund, which is a special Fund that has been found every time to meet the criteria of a special Fund by the Office of the Auditor.

And it's just paying ourselves, replenishing our operational supplies. The last comment I'll make is I mentioned that marriage license fees. A cut of that went to the birth of X special Fund. Currently, unless this bill is passed or enacted, the Department of Health doesn't get any revenue back of the $60.

The General Fund gets about 40, and the balance is split among three special funds. We do all the work. It's all our staff. We pay for the postage. We swear them in. We use our own equipment.

So it would be nice for the agency that does all the work to get a little bit back and so that we can pour it back into customer service and quality improvement. Continuous quality improvement. So I hope you look favorably on this.

Again, it does take away 650k from the General Fund, but it will be put to good use and constituents will notice the difference once we set up all of these continuous quality improvement projects. Thank you. And I'm available for questions.

Thank you. We also received testimony and support from Koolau Foundation. That's all the written testimony we received. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom questions?

Members? Okay, I've been on that tour. So we'll move on to the next bill. Senate Bill 1365 HD1.

First, we have the State Health Planning and Development Agency, Shipta in support.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair. Members, this is an important oversight that we. We have as a state. We have this interstate compact that allows. Facilitates us bringing physicians here and we need them. We want to recruit doctors from other states to Hawaii, but presumably in their other state, when they got their license, somebody did their background check.

But when they get here, we currently didn't have this particular responsibility clearly outlined that we have to do the background check here. That's just a simple thing. But we need to do it to protect the quality of care and we'd love to see you move this along. Thank you.

Thank you. We have the Hawaii Medical Board in support. Thank you. HMSA in support. Thank you. The Queen's Health System in support on zoom.

Aloha. Vice Chair, Chair. Members of the Committee, JC Monke on behalf of Queens Health Systems just wanted stand on our testimony but say mahalo to the ledge for passing this Compact back in 2023 and also Mahalo to the Department for actually implementing and we really support this measure moving forward so the compact can be fully functioning for our state. Mahalo.

Thank you. That's everybody who I have checked in. Also testimony and support from Healthcare Association of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific Health, Kaiser Permanente and one individual. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to test anybody on Zoom questions?

Members, thank you. Moving on to the next Bill. Senate Bill 1443, SD1, HD1.

We have the Department of Health in support.

Aloha Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. My name is Mark Lynn Scott. I'm the Hawaii State Hospital Administrator. This is really important. As you may know, most of our patients would qualify for Medicaid if they were on the outside. And so this is kind of parity in terms of getting reimbursement from the state at those Medicare rates.

The other part of this bill is to make sure that we get our patients who are long term skilled nursing into the right environment, which is not necessarily at the state hospital because these folks are really in need of long term care or skilled nursing.

So it allows the Department Director to be able to set those rates so our patients have a chance of getting to the right level of care. Mahalo for your consideration and available for questions.

Thank you. Also testimony and support from the State Council on Mental Health. That's all the recent testimony we've received. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom Questions?

Next, Senate Bill 1441 SD2HD1.

First we have the Department of Health and support.

Good afternoon Chair, Vice Chair, Members of. The Committee, Marion Tsuji for the Department of Health. We strongly support this Bill and only ask that the Committee consider putting a valid effective date of having it effective applied. Signature. Thank you.

Thank you. Testimony, support from the Hawaii Health Systems Corporation. Thank you. That's everybody. I have checked in. Also testimony and support from Oahu region of HHSC and comments from the University of Hawaii. zero, sorry. Oahu region on zoom.

Good afternoon, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members, Sean Sonata on behalf of the Oahu region, we'll stand our written testimony and support and we'll be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you.

Thank you. And University of Hawaii system with comments. That's all the written testimony we've received. Anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on zoom?

Okay, questions.

A quick question. Oahu region, please.

Hi, Vice Chair.

Hi. So in the testimony, you know, it outlines all of the things that, you know, that I think you guys are pointing out about using all the spaces that were kind of being in question for the originating Bill for this before we had to do this repeal.

I just want to make sure that even when we do the repeal, you know, Oahu region is still going to, you know, work on a comprehensive plan for what we're doing both, you know, at Leahi and Maluhia.

I think earlier we discussed during the info briefings, I, I think it was mentioned that you guys are redoing your long term plan. Is that still correct?

That is correct. We have a project with the University of Hawaii Community Design Center. We've already kicked off the project. They're doing assessments, they're looking at height restrictions, easements, just General infrastructure analyses to determine how we can further develop the Liaji campus to make it more usable either for revenue generation or for more public benefit.

And to answer your question, it is our intent from the get go. We are the stewards of the Laihi Hospital campus, which only a portion of which is used for long term care. So we know that we have an obligation to the public to utilize the spaces appropriately.

And so this project will go hand in hand with our long term goals to work with all departments in need. It's not just the Department of Health. As you're aware, one of our projects is with the city and County of Honolulu, the North Shore Mental Health Center.

Sorry, I thought the plan was going to be for Oahu. Is a. The work's only being done for Leahi campus. I thought there was going to be an update on like the Oahu region plan. So in for everything that you guys are doing.

No, so. So the uh, CDC plan, or I guess that project deals with Jess Hospital campus because that has the usable space or potentially usable space at Maluhia we only have half of a floor that is already suitable for long term care operations or something that might possibly be situated without affecting our license.

So for long term plans for Maluhia it would be limited to long term care because the facility is way more, way smaller than the Liaji campus.

Okay, sorry, I thought we had. Okay. There wasn't like another like you know, just Oahu region plan. I think, you know, we talked and that kind of got disrupted in Covid. That that was also just for Leahi, infrastructure wise.

It's just for Leahi because the Malihia campus is very limited in available space. But project or I guess programming that is part of our General strategic plan which we are trying to update at this time.

And there was a delay during COVID but whatever we can use the space for when space becomes available, we would do so at both Malihia and Leahi. It's just that at Malihia the only available space would be that half floor currently suitable for long term care.

Okay, sorry, I think I misspoke. So the strategic plan is also being updated.

Yes, so we're correct. We're updating our strategic plan which impacts the entire region. And that I guess that would be the overall umbrella. And underneath that umbrella you have the program or the project with the UHCDC to revamp the Liaji campus to make more usable space, as most of our space right now is currently occupied.

But on the Malihia side, it'd be more dealing with programming and how we can. I mean, if we're gonna shift residents around, if that becomes a viable possibility, how we could do so, you know, with a greater impact and greater efficiency.

Okay, thank you. Thank you, Chair.

Okay.

Thank you. Further questions. Moving on to Senate Bill 1431, SD1, HD1.

First, we have the Department of Health and Support.

Good afternoon, Chair. Vice Chair. Members of the Committee, I'm Tim Mccormick with the Communicable Disease and Public Health Nursing Division of the Department of Health. The Department strongly supports this measure. You have our written testimony.

But I just wanted to emphasize that hepatitis B and C are winnable battles with the available testing technologies, immunization for hepatitis B, treatment for hepatitis B, and highly effective curative treatment for hepatitis C that works in as little as eight weeks.

Along with the community partnerships that Harper Health has developed, this measure, which would create and Fund a hepatitis prevention program, could have a tremendous impact addressing these really critical diseases. I'm available for any questions. Thank you for hearing this measure.

Thank you. We have Hep Free Hawaii in support.

Hello, Chair Yamashita, Vice Chair Takinuchi, Members of the Committee, my name is Aaron Ruddick. I'm testifying on behalf of Hep Free Hawaii. Hep Free Hawaii is a coalition of over 100 organizations united to eliminate viral hepatitis in Hawaii. NEI. We strongly support SB 1431. CDC considers viral hepatitis a winnable battle.

Hawaii already has a hepatitis elimination strategy that's laid out in the Hep Free 2030 plan. What is needed is funding to support this elimination plan. SB 1431 seeks funding to establish a hepatitis prevention and education program within the Department of Health. There is currently zero state funding for viral hepatitis elimination in Hawaii.

Hepatitis elimination is an achievable goal if we have the funding and resources that are requested in SB 1431. I'm the hepatitis Care Coordinator at Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction Center. I focus on testing, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C. That's C, as in Charlie.

Hepatitis C is curable in as little as eight weeks with an oral medication only. The medication is highly effective with little to no side effects. Hepatitis C treatment is very uncomplicated, saves lives and saves the state money. Hepatitis C treatment not only saves lives, it changes lives.

Individuals that are cured of hepatitis C are much more likely to become invested in their own health, mental health, and also other social services that improve their lives. Thank you for this opportunity to testify I'm here for any questions. We hope that you pass this measure.

Thank you. That's everybody. We have checked in. Also testimony in support from Hawaii Substance Abuse Coalition, Hawaii Health and Harm Reduction center and Aloha Care, as well as about 18 individuals. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify? Anybody on Zoom?

Okay, question. Okay. Moving on to the final Bill on this. Hold on.

Sorry. Dr. Lynn, do we miss you?

Yes. Chair, Vice Chair. I think my testimony didn't make it, but we. Strong support.

Oh, okay. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, Any further testifiers? Okay. Any questions? Okay, we're going to move on to the next bill. Senate Bill 1434, SD1 HD1.

First, we have the Department of Health in support.

Aloha Chair and Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. My name is Ron Balaharia. I'm the Immunization Branch chief at the Department of Health. The Department of Health strongly supports SB 1434. You have a written testimony. I'm just going to provide some highlights on this that the Department wants to focus on.

This is a program to reduce barriers to access vaccines for those who choose to receive them. It is expected to reduce costs for health care providers and health plans. The intent is to make available to health care providers a range of vaccines that are available for discounted purchasing as currently occurs in the vaccines for children program.

We only need right now a one time support startup fund for 99,340,000. Then the program becomes self sustaining through the rate assessment process and so the following program, the funds are going to be used for the first year to build out the infrastructure and staffing for the program and will not be used for immunization purchases.

And the following program startup fees collected from assessed plans will pay for all subsequent program costs, including administrative costs and immunization purchases. Thank you so much for this opportunity to provide testimony and here to answer any questions if needed.

Thank you. Thank you. Next we have State Health Planning and Development Agency SHPDA in support.

Aloha Vice Chair and Members of the Committee, Jack Lewin, again Administrator of SHPDA. We are in strong support of this. It really helps physicians practices and rural clinics and others to promote vaccination. Otherwise these providers go at risk for the purchase of vaccine. It's difficult for them and if there's leftover vaccines, sometimes it's.

They can't recoup the money. This just facilitates making access available. And we strongly support the bill. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Tax foundation of Hawaii with comments on Zoom.

Thank you. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Tom Yamachika from Tax Foundation. We have no disagreement with the Proposition that vaccines are a good thing. We do have concerns about, number one, the special fund and number two, the means of getting money into it.

We think that the bill should be looked at as imposing a new tax because that's what it does. And I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. We have the Hawaiian Islands Republican women in opposition.

Aloha. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, the Hawaiian Islands Republican women stand in strong opposition to SB 1434. You have my written testimony. When we stand on that, I want to highlight a number of points. This bill talks about funding universal immunization purchase program.

As the Hawaii Tax foundation just testified, SB 1434 imposes a new charge on assessed entities. Assessed entities could be insurers, namely these health insurers and health plans to Fund a program to make bulk purchases of vaccines. So this places a burden on the taxpayers in the sense that it is using the special funds.

And we all know based on history that the special funds sometimes does not come with full accountability. And I want to thank Rep. Keho Kapu Liloi earlier for her passion for fiscal responsibility and stewardship. And that's really what we're talking about here. I'd also like to mention a couple of highlights that this Bill runs under.

The assumption that the general public, parents and parents of children are for this and the decision for vaccinations immunizations is a decision between parents and the physicians, patients and the physicians. I have served in health care for over 33 years as a licensed social worker and a healthcare administrator. We must not forget informed consent.

So I believe this is government overreach and fiscal irresponsibility. Thank you for this opportunity to testify.

Thank you. Do we have the Hawaii Chapter of American Academy of Pediatrics on Zoom in support?

Yes. Good afternoon. Sorry, my dog decided to bark right at this moment. My name is Maya Maxim. I am co Chair of the Advocacy Committee for the Hawaii Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members, we did submit written testimony, but I would like to just take a moment to talk a little bit about the cost of vaccine preventable diseases. So I think we all agree that having a devastating disease is a really terrible thing. I work in a hospital.

I see children whose lives and their families lives are upended by devastating diseases unfortunately on a too frequent basis. But what you know, this is the Finance Committee and I want to give you a little sense of what the cost is of a vaccine versus the cost of a lifelong consequence of a vaccine preventable disease.

If we're talking about this, and you know, several people have just said that they are looking at it as a new tax. Let's talk about the cost to taxpayers of having a patient with lifelong preventable disability, for example, severe disability as a result of measles, which is certainly possible.

And I expect that we're going to be seeing that in the outbreak that's currently ongoing on the continent and is likely to come here within the next few months. I take care of patients who have frequent hospitalizations, who have, have frequent pneumonias, who have seizures. These are not all related to vaccine preventable diseases.

But I'm talking about when you have complex chronic medical conditions, Most of those patients are covered by quest. And so that is paid for by the taxpayer. They deserve the same quality of care as everybody else.

But if you have the opportunity to prevent it with something that costs cents on the dollar, such as a vaccine, and the state is looking at potential funding cuts coming from the Federal Government, I think it makes absolutely no sense to not take the opportunity to increase access to vaccines for those who choose to vaccinate and increase the risk of us having more patients with complex, chronic, potentially lifelong disease as a result of vaccine preventable infections that then puts a much greater burden financially on the system than the cost of a vaccine, especially at the discounted rate, would, would do.

So I wanted to really emphasize that point. From a financial standpoint, it absolutely makes sense to make this small investment right now in order to create a self sustaining program that can ultimately save the state a significant amount of money. I'd be happy to take any questions as well. Thank you.

Thank you. We have the Libertarian Party of Hawaii in opposition on Zoom. Not present. We have Michael Older in support.

Hello Members of this community. In my written testimony I've already outlined the importance of this bill and why it should be passed. So I won't go over how vaccines don't cause autism. Even if they did, there's nothing wrong with autism. How the amount of children dying pre vaccines was so great that the average lifespan was 40 years.

Not because people only drop dead after a couple decades, but just by the sheer amount of dead children. But instead I'll testify on why healthcare is already an enormous burden in Hawaii, not because of the expense, but the distrust of insurance companies.

How many people in Hawaii are distrustful of of getting free vaccines through their insurance because they're often worried about hidden back fees?

But this bill would remove that hesitancy and it will also protect the R Keiki and Kupuna who are the most who are among the most vulnerable for non vaccinated complications and will sorry and this will also would protect our native Hawaiian community who are who are have some of the weakest immune systems the state.

We observed this in COVID 19 with native Hawaiians getting hospitalized 10 times higher than other demographics. By supporting this Bill we would be supporting our state's most vulnerable populations and saving countless lives in the process.

Finally, having a broad universal immunization plan would give pharmaceutical companies less room to haggle for inflated prices so taxpayers money wouldn't be abused as much. If I had any comments it would be that I wish this bill would be expand to everyone not just people under 18 and over 65. But I digress.

If not I hope this I would like to see this expanded to those who are immunocompromised so they would be better protected. If you need another way to justify this Bill, take in mind that our society can only thrive if we lift each other up as well as ourselves. We all live on this island together. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Brent Kublis in opposition on Zoom.

Thank you Chair Yamashita Committee Members. My name is Brett Kulbis. I'm a 26 year Navy veteran. I live in Eva Beach. I strongly oppose SB 1434. Funding mechanism proposed by this Bill is fiscally irresponsible by levying assessments AKA taxes on health insurers. This will lead to increased costs for Hawaii families through higher insurance premiums.

This regressive approach disproportionately burdens those already struggling with Hawaii's high cost of living. The Bill also fails to include a spending cap or clear budget projections. This open ended financial commitment will strain state resources and potentially divert funds from other critical health initiatives.

Finally, the creation of another special fund for this bill violates sound fiscal policy and practices and goes against the recommendation of 1989 Tax Review Commission which stated such funds restrict budget flexibility and reduce accountability. Respectfully, I strongly encourage you to vote no on SB 1434. Mahalo.

Thank you. We have Cassandra Simonson in support on Zoom.

Hi there. My name is Dr. Cassandra Simonson. I'm a pediatrician in Maui. I've been here for 11 years. I'm speaking on my own behalf. I work at the federally qualified Health Clinic. I stand on my written testimony. But I just wanted to point out that our unvaccinated Keiki population has grown dramatically due to refusal and vaccine hesitancy.

36% of my 2 year old and below patients are fully vaccinated and most often they are refusing measles due to misinformation. And now we are in the midst of a very large measles outbreak. I expect it to be here any moment in our state.

And so this is primarily a neighbor island vulnerability because our immunization rates are so much lower. We have thousands and thousands of Keiki that are unimmunized on the outer islands, on the neighbor islands. So what you're going to see, if you want to come from the finance Committee's perspective, their ambulance transport is $30,000.

20% of kids will need to be hospitalized. None of the neighbor islands have the capability to take care of very ill children. So you're looking at 20% of these thousands of unvaccinated Keiki and that will need to be transported. The cost of one outbreak would be enormous to our state.

And I just think that this very small investment and we need it long term, the Federal Government is not going to bail us out like with Covid This is a whole different Administration.

Our vaccines for children is very vulnerable and all of the pediatricians are extremely worried about how we're going to make this work and be planning for basically the worst case scenario. This was one way to try to mitigate that and to be prepared.

I'm very concerned that we will just straight up run out of vaccines as well during an outbreak. Establishing our state Fund that does not depend on the Federal Government would be a very good way to protect our taking. Thank you.

Thank you. We have Cheryl Choyofuku in opposition.

Aloha Representatives. My name is Cheryl Toyafuku. I'm a retired registered nurse. Over 30 years ago, I transitioned to more natural, non toxic health care. And I'm in strong opposition of SB 1434.

You know, this really raises major concerns on the administrative and and financial burdens on assessed entities as stated in the bill, trickling down to the people of Hawaii. And it also states that this is immunization, immunizations for all individuals. This bill has really, this bill has really transitioned from this original intent.

It's morphed from this funding program to again include all individuals, not just those who are covered or not covered. So this is allowing the Department of Health to manage the purchase and distribution of immunizations without a projected budget and clear funding proposal. This is terrible fiscal policy.

DoH's written testimony in support of Companion Bill HB 1115, dated February 7 for the House Health Committee stated estimated annual administrative costs of a UIP. The Universal Immunization Program is anticipated to be 2.8 to $3.6 million with a startup fee of 934,000.

Then the latest DOH testimonial of SB 1434 for the recent House Health Committee dated March 14, omits this annual administrative cost. But it does say it still needs a one time startup fee of 934,000. So this omission is a clear indication of fiscal irresponsibility.

It is very apparent that this funding program will require a multitude of administrative tasks to manage the purchase, storage, distribution of vaccines to individuals in Hawaii with contracts to other entities to carry out the purposes of this funding program.

Administrative task will also include establishment, monitoring and responsibilities of the Special Fund with accurate records and reports and audits of fees, fines, cost reimbursements, legislative appropriations, grants, contracts, donations and private contributions, monies from the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and other federal agencies.

The authority given also to the Department of Health Director is really an overreach that may include experimental, unsafe, ineffective vaccines without any public or legislative oversight. Immunization, it says in the bill, immunization includes any other substance designated as such by order of the Director. So what other substances are we talking about?

Is it more than what the CDC is recommending or the FDA? The Director may also determine an interim assessment for the new immunizations or public health emergencies and she'll calculate a supplemental interim assessment. These funds should actually be allocated instead to healthier programs.

We're focusing so much on the vaccines, but it should be instead go to healthier programs and lifestyles that build natural immunity, not acquired immunity from these jobs. This would really truly benefit the people of Hawaii.

Just for example, healthier school lunches, exercise and sunshine, decreased technological screening that our kids are going through, and better health education from the Department of Health. Funding and focusing on any immunization program should be avoided as we are well aware of significant scientifically documented research linking toxic vaccines to neurological disorders, crippling diseases and increasing chronic illnesses.

The vaccine or the VAERS Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System and the vaccine death reports will verify and confirm this claim. So please, please oppose and do not let this pass this Committee. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Mary Healey in opposition on zoom.

Hi. I'm in opposition of this bill because I believe that it's not good for Hawaii citizens. At the end of the day, the hesitancy that's happening right now is not going to be changed by passing this bill.

And I think that a lot of parents have the right to be hesitant when we have one in 34 children in the United States with autism, when we have skyrocketing rates of infertility death that's being reported to the bars.

And I understand measles is a very dangerous disease, but how exactly passing this bill and giving the power to the head of the Department of Health is going to change? Vaccine hesitancy in measles is not explained. Instead, really, all it's going to do is give power to a group of people who citizens no longer trust.

And, you know, I just would like to quote Voltaire real quick because I think it's prevalent to this particular situation, those that can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.

And in the State of Hawaii, people are educating themselves on what they want to put into their body, what they don't want to put into their body. And I think all of you should vote no because this bill isn't going to change people's individual education. And I think it's a huge overreach.

I think that at the end of the day, we have the ability, by the way, like we did in Covid, to bring hospital ships to the islands. That's not an excuse for funding all of these vaccines. It's like a shill way, a shill tactic.

And, you know, I might not be wearing a lab coat, but I can tell you right now that that's not going to change why her patients aren't taking the vaccines. So at the end of the day, you all should vote no on this bill. It doesn't make sense for Hawaii.

It doesn't make fiscal sense and make some more community outreach if you want to change the vaccine rates. Because right now 77% of Americans don't trust the CDC for a reason. We're tired of having things put into our bodies that are killing people and killing children in particular. So you thank you so much.

I hope you all vote with your conscience.

Thank you. We have Kim Cordery in opposition. Oh, maybe Kim Cordery on zoom. Okay, well, we'll circle back at the end if anybody else is available. Teresa Armbruster in opposition.

Aloha chair, Vice Chair and Committee Members. I'm Teresa Armbruster and I'm strongly opposed to SB 1434 for several reasons. First of all, this universal program is not needed. There's already existing programs that allow access to vaccines for children and adults.

So instead of having a universal program and people that want shots and maybe they don't have as easy access like that other testifiers said on Maui or other islands, well, you can totally pare this way down and you don't even need a universal program. You can have access to those people that want them on those islands.

Just make, just tailor fit for the needs of the people on different islands as opposed to having a universal program and making all of us pay for a program that only some people need access to the shots. And also, since this is the finance Committee, I do want to focus on some of the funding issues.

First of all, like we were saying before, trying to take money from the General Fund just to create a special fund is not sound fiscal policy. And also taking from a certain amount from other special funds just to support this fund that can lead to fraud and abuse.

And also, you need to clarify there's on one of the pages that some other things are going to go into this special fund. It's from donations, private contributions, other monies from other sources. There needs to be a lot more transparency and clarity on that.

And also, since this is a finance Committee, again, we asking you to be good stewards of our money. This program does not even list any.

There's no spending caps, there's no clear budget, no cap on assessment fees and fines, no financial transparency, no fiduciary responsibility, all topped off with no liability to the Director of, Health, his task force, or anyone involved in administering this program. This all adds up to a big no to a program that is not even needed.

Instead of a one size fits all vaccine program for all, why don't you spend less money and just initiate some programs that for overall health and resilience and that would be less costly. It would be beneficial to everyone and would also support freedom of choice for all.

So I do ask you again, since I just want to point back to another Bill that you're asking for, $10 million for emergency appropriations. And if you can't even afford that, why are you going to start a whole new program with all these other issues, funding issues.

So I strongly urge you to be good stewards of our taxpayer money and ask you to vote no to SB 1434. Mahalo.

Thank you. We have Yvette Moore in opposition on zoom. Not present. We have Tarita Tehotu in opposition on zoom.

Yes, Aloha Mai Kako. Can you hear me? Yes, please proceed. Okay, mahalo. So, Velina, my chair and Committee Members, I stand on my written testimony in opposition to SB 1434, SD1, HD1.

In my last testimony that we did the other the other week, I had asked the Committee, another Committee, not you, to answer the questions that I had in my testimony. I am asking the same of this Committee.

The creation of the Universal Immunization Purchase Special Fund raises concerns about possible inefficiencies, lack of accountability and added financial pressure on state and individual resources, as well as the religious exemption. I'm going to add that in some key issues I want to highlight. So I have a number of points of questions.

Because Hawaii already participates in the Vaccine for children program, the USC 1396, which provides immunizations at no charge for eligible children 18 years of age or younger, why do we need the UIP to cover children? Number one? There are also similar terminologies that appear throughout the drafts of SB.

What do these terms entail, such as assessment assessments, assessed entity assessment rate and interim assessment, and whom do they apply? What reports are these assessed entities required to submit? What specific information must be included in these reports, and what is the Department of Health approach to executing these assessments? Frequent changes to the assessment mechanism.

For instance, the provision allowing the Director to modify the assessments after just one year is very concerning to me and it should be to you. What is the financial impact on entities and what is the expected annual revenue from this initiative?

Could you please specify which organizations or businesses are defined as assessed entities and how does this differ from the definition in SB 1434? What does lastly, what does HB 1434 SD1 HD1 why does HB 1434 SD1 HD1 broaden the universal Immunization Purchase Program to cover all individuals immunizations in the state, not just those individuals ineligible for no cost programs?

And could this increase the cost and duplication coverage for many in Hawaii? So mahalo for allowing me to testify and giving us time to share. Thank you.

We have Wallace James in opposition.

Good afternoon Chair, Vice Chair, Members of Committee. I'm opposed to SB 1434. First of all it's a waste of taxpayers money. Everybody knows that. Just like the real and Department of Health ask you for money. That's a red, that's a red flag. So for me I'll show you. I'm here to educate people.

Right now people don't know about the vaccines right now. Go on. So the other Committee I explained to them, go on Google it, go on whatever search engine look up VAERS report. Okay the vaccine. VAERS is the vaccine adverse event reporting system and it shows everything from since 1990.

It shows all the people that died, all the adverse events and right here I'll just give a little sample. I can go on days after days here. So reports of vaccine advert events in various 2,663,664. See this is just the events and that's under the government.

So anybody who trusts the government better look at this vars report thing. 49,393 total report death. Go look it up. Then everybody is saying get vaccinated, get vaccinated. We'll go on the VAERS report, see how much people died, see how much people got injured. So I got some goodies for you guys.

Like I said, I'm here to educate people. Anybody who don't believe that they can get injured. Here's a video you can go on Ebay, Amazon vax1 vax2 people's truth. There's also vax3 but I don't have vax3. Go watch the videos. Don't take my word for it. Do your investigation.

There's a lot of people that died and adverse events but people I said get vaxxed that health department big red flag. We should just get rid of the health Department. They're not helping Hawaii. So here's another one. Cause unknown. The epidemic of sudden deaths 2021-2022 hundreds of people here, here.

18 year old girl died after first vaccine dose. I can go on and on. Why are we funding vaccines? That's the point. Why are we funding something that's going to kill children and human beings? You know why? I'll answer that question. Because people are getting money from big pharma.

So somebody a resource gave me who allegedly got money from Pfizer. Josh Green got A whopper. He's got a lot from big Pfizer. This is why all these vaccine bills come out every year. Every year we're coming out here. Testimony. I'm leaving my job, spending money on gas money, spending on gas money and parking.

We're coming on here every year. Why is this Vaccine bills keep coming out nonstop because people are getting paid. Representative Nadine Nakamura got $100. Linda Ichamoro, 250. Dee Morokawa, 500. Nikki Lauren, 100. Della Abalati, 1,000. Ronald Kuchi, 1,000. Glenn Wakai, 100. Donovan De La Cruz, 800. Michelle Kadani, 250.

There's a lot more, but they're not in office right now. This is why the bills is going through because people are getting money. We can just sit here, look at these books and videos and say, look, people are dying. But the people turn away because you know what? There's money being given.

So this is not on you guys, but I'll just read this article. This was back in January 2024. Hawaii has been named the most corrupt state in America. Okay.

In recent evaluation conducted by Institute of Corruption Studies of Illinois State University, Hawaii, known as Aloha State, has once again claimed the rather unwelcome title of the most corrupt city in the United States. And this is. This is Civil beat back in 2016. Here's something you probably don't want to hear.

Hawaii is the only state in which both legislative and Executive branches are perceived to be very corrupt. The line comes directly from newly released results from the Corruption in America survey of more than 250 reporters from across the country, many of whom cover state government and politics.

So I think we should spend the money on investigating where the money is going to how it's being spent. Just like the doge. We got to get into it. Look at the Department of Health. Go and walk inside. They're probably just walking around getting money for nothing. They're a big red flag. And so that ends my testimony.

And I'm against and I oppose SB 1434. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have an Alomar Gamache Apar. Sorry about that. Please go ahead. In opposition.

Hi. Alamar Gamache. Thank you for having me. I'm opposed to 1434. I have lost in the past two years six immediate family Members from vaccine, death, injury and death. I have two immediate siblings who have got chronic health conditions and long Covid, etcetera, from vaccines. I have nephews that were given MMR shots at age 14.

Or 18 months that both became autistic within 72 hours. Identical twins. That's impossible to say that that is not from the vaccine injected into their bodies. I have great concern about the fact that nobody's actually researching why there is so much hesitancy for vaccines in Hawaii.

Like maybe people know things that like it's affecting them on a personal level for a reason. They are actually stopping to do this to their children. I am personally vaccine injured at age 8 and then again at 53 because I was unaware that the tetanus shot is a vaccine.

I still deal with health conditions because of that injection. So the other problem is the fact that there doesn't seem to be any oversight on what's going to be spent, how much is going to be spent. It's kind of like setting us up for more waste, use and fraud in Department of Health.

The person who's going to be in control of these funds is not elected, they are appointed. And it doesn't seem to have like a lot of oversight of what they can do with these funds.

So again, I'm just greatly opposed to forcing or just spending any more money on things that we are very concerned about, what the health effects are on them. Go out and research the VAERS data. It's very specific what's going on.

Go out and look and see what happened to our military when they were forced to get injected for this. Our pilots can't fly anymore. They've actually had to change the laws for people who fly, who are flying airplanes in the United States because of heart damage that they've got myocarditis. My partner's sister was greatly affected from these.

She has long Covid all the time. Anyway, that's just the COVID vaccines, let alone all the other childhood things. My son was damaged with a parapatusis vaccine at age 2. So please do your research on this. Please don't spend more money on this.

Take that money that you would be doing this and let's get people vitamin D3K2 every day. Let's give them things that actually promote their own immune system, which was God given to protect them from things that are in the environment all the time. Please, please don't pass this Bill.

Stop spending our tax money on things that people don't want. And again, I'm opposed to SB 1434. Thank you.

Thank you. Next we have Mark Mcarthur in opposition.

Hello, my name is Mark Mcarthur and I'm opposed to SB 1434. As that nurse stated in her testimony. She said the vaccines or immunization is way down. She gave measles as an example.

Back in the old days, they would have measles parties where they'd bring all the kids together so all the neighborhood kids would all get measles and then naturally immunize. Why do we need all these vaccines? The most healthiest kids in America are the Amish. They don't even get vaccinated.

My mother lived at Kahalanui, which is a real posh retirement home, and she lived. She got really sick. So. She was in the long term health care. And she had a whole big group of friends, all super healthy. A lot of them still drove.

As soon as they all got the vaccine, they all died within a year, like 10 of them. My mother got sick with COVID at one point and I was in really strong contact with the Doctor. And as soon as President Trump accepted thing for monoclonal antibodies, the Doctor called me.

She said, you, mom will be the first person that will be getting this. And it just cured her of COVID like that. Something that other doctors weren't even pushing. So I feel like it's overreach for you to have to put these funds out. Yeah. I think that's about all I wanted to say today. Thank you.

Thank you. That's everybody I had checked in. Is there anybody else in the room wishing to testify, please come forward.

Please just state your name and position for the record.

My name is Lois Young. I'm a private citizen and thank you for the opportunity to speaking to you today. Chairman, Vice Chairman, Members of the Committee. I pride myself in being a very good steward of my money and I'm sure that you do also.

And whenever I buy a product, I look at the ingredients to see what's in it. And I'm sure you might do that also. I also take a look at product and I wonder what are the side effects? And I do my research like you do also.

So as I look at this funding that's going forward for vaccines, I know that there have been injuries, there have been side effects. And I also know that the pharmaceuticals are not responsible, the companies are not responsible for any injuries that occur like myocarditis, death, paralysis.

And it then falls on the guardian or the parents or the person who's been injured to handle all those medical bills. That is egregious. I also feel that if there was an opportunity for them to sue the state if they fund this, that might take place, if that's possible.

But I also remember as a child, like one fellow said, we had measles parties, I'm a senior, so we are exposed to our cousins. And when we had the measles, it was a lifelong immunity. I'm sure some of you here on the Committee have been exposed to the measles. And I'm still here and so are my cousins.

They're still here. So I do want to, I want to have us understand what herd immunity is. And that means you get exposed to the so called disease and you build up a lifelong immunity, period. You don't need one vaccine after another after another after another, which we know or you may know causes neurological problems.

Because there's ingredients in the vaccine that sits in your body and where does it go on your organs, on your brain, uterus, veins, where does it go? How is it eliminated? So we need to ask ourselves, are we buying a faulty product?

So I just want to say if we're going to spend our money, as I've heard before in this, in some of the testimonies, I really feel that if we can put our monies into educating our communities, our public, our school kids on eating proper food, getting lots of Hawaii sunshine and exercising, get involved in a sport, we can build our immune system up so we don't have to take a pill, you know, medication on a daily basis.

That to me is a program that keeps you on medication forever. High blood pressure, statins all of these things, some of our seniors, we have them all the time. We're on continuous medication. Is there a cure? I believe there is a cure. Diet, exercise, nutrition. Let's do our research and educate our community. Thank you.

Thank you. Anybody else in the room? Anybody on Zoom wishing to testify? If I may. Please just state your name and position for the record and then proceed.

Aloha. I'm Austin Martin. I'm the Chairman of the Libertarian Party of Hawaii. I'm here today to oppose this bill and add a few comments to my written testimony by pointing out a few obvious should be obvious things. Number one is that informed consent is really important.

It's impossible to separate this bill from the greater context of a very aggressive and forceful push by the Hawaiian state to eliminate the health choices of individuals to force them to obtain medicines that they do not want. This bypassing of informed consent is extremely harmful to our society in a number of ways.

And I think this is actually the first issue is that regardless of whether you think these other folks in the room are educated enough to have valid health opinions that you think should be binding on others is absolutely irrelevant. They have a right to decide for better or for worse.

And we do not get to act like the potential presence of a disease is grounds for taking away their capacity as individuals. That would be number one.

Number two is that there is a multibillion dollar lobbying industry which is active in this room right now with a massive profit incentive to take away such choice from the vaccine hesitant and turn them into unwilling consumers. And all they have to do is buy enough votes.

They not long ago convinced many of us that we needed to carry around vaccine passports in order to go eat at a restaurant. We are talking about oppression that really should turn our stomachs. So we cannot separate this Bill from the context of what the state has been trying to do by force, by hook or by crook.

Nor can we separate it from the fact that these companies and their profit motive are hooked up with a multi $1.0 billion propaganda machine. And we are looking at the results of the politicization of medicine where our bodies are the market that is being fought over without our consent. That's the problem today.

Regardless of whether you agree with the vaccine salesmen and they are salesmen and they do have a pitch and they are absolutely influencing the political arrangement of this to where everybody who disagrees with vaccine must automatically be a certain wing or a certain political perspective.

And everybody who blindly believes everything the vaccine salesmen say with total credulity is a good Other side. Most of us are just people who don't care about all that. We just don't want to be forced against our will to take medicines that we neither want nor need.

I think it's really important that we look at this from both a fiscal perspective. This is just an irresponsible, terrible Bill from the get go. It just shows total disdain and and disrespect for the people, our taxes, our economy, our society. But the trotting upon the individual rights. This is what Mussolini would call fascism.

The father of fascism defined it as the merger between state and corporate power and interest. And here we are doing exactly that. And it's from the people and the party that we would think least likely, or at least many would think least likely to embrace such policy.

This is the danger of excess certainty, the hubris of religious zealots who would impose their will on others because they are so sure they're right. Science is robust. There is no broad total agreement. There is always exploration, new ideas, new questions. And when we take away those choices in the freedom of inquiry, the entire field suffers.

And there are vaccine salesmen and pharmaceutical companies who want exactly that. They don't care about the science and they don't care about public health. They care about their profit motive. And they're very eager to dress it up as if it were public health. But the truth is public health is better served by freedom than by tyranny.

Thank you for hearing me today. Have an excellent day.

Thank you. Anybody else on Zoom?

Okay, Members, bye. Go ahead.

Okay, my name is. Well, first of all, thank you, Chair Kyle Yamashita, Vice Chair Jenna Takenouchi and Members of the Finance Committee. I'm giving testimony to strongly oppose SB 1434 relating to universal immunization funding program. My name is Margaret Mejia and I represent Hawaii Christian Coalition.