Two important Senate Bills designed to identify land ownership, inventory public trust lands in the state and develop a public corporation to oversee public land usage have been signed into law by Governor Neil Abercrombie.
The first, Senate Bill 2, will create a repository for the land inventory. This is an “important tool that will help the State of Hawaii manage its public lands,” said Big Island Senator Malama Solomon, who also called Senate Bill 2 “a long-awaited initiative that has finally come into fruition.”
The second bill signed by Governor Abercrombie, Senate Bill 1555, establishes a public corporation which is tasked with overseeing an appropriate and culturally-sensitive land development program for the economic, environmental and social benefit for the people of Hawaii. This program would allow businesses to lease state lands. Revenue from such leases would go to a Department of Land and Natural Resources special fund allocated to help maintain those state lands. The overall purpose of the corporation will be to generate revenues that may be used to offset the regulatory functions of the Department of Land and Natural Resources. It will also be tasked with identifying public lands suitable for redevelopment, administer marketing analysis to determine the best programs to generate revenue for the public lands, enter into public-private agreements to appropriately redevelop the public lands. The new Public Land Development Corporation arm of the Department of Land and Natural Resources will also provide the leadership for the redevelopment, financing, improvement or enhancement of the selected redevelopment opportunities.
Of the two Senate Bills she initially introduced, Oahu Senator Dela Cruz said, “As the state faces a budget shortfall and departments such as the Department of Land and Natural Resources continue to see cuts in staff, it is imperative that we get this economy back on track. The DLNR will focus on the regulatory functions, while the Public Lands Corporation will focus on the revenue-generating functions. By creating opportunities through public-private partnerships, we can revitalize our state parks, redevelop our boat harbors and create revenue-generating opportunities that result into jobs. The endgame is to get the dilapidated infrastructure and underutilized land generating revenue, so that no taxpayer money will be directed to supporting DLNR and the department will no longer need to rely on the general fund.”
Senate Bill 2 and Senate Bill 1555 will go into effect July 1, 2011.
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