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Committee approves transfer of State Foundation on Culture and the Arts to DBEDT with added staff and transition period
Summary
The committee voted to advance HB450 to move the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission from the Department of Accounting and General Services to DBEDT, adding an FTE and asking for a two-year transition in the committee report.
The House Committee on Culture, Arts & International Affairs voted to advance HB450, a bill to transfer the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the King Kamehameha Celebration Commission from the Department of Accounting and General Services to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism (DBEDT). The committee agreed to technical amendments for clarity and style, to add the additional full-time equivalent position requested by DBEDT to assist with the transition, and to request a two-year transition period in the committee report.
Karen Ewald, executive director of the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts, testified in person and said she has researched other recent agency transfers to avoid losing funding during a move. "It appears that that's not going to be the case," Ewald said, but she recommended taking approximately a year to transfer budget codes and payroll and requested consideration of an additional staff person in DBEDT's Administrative Services Office to help manage the move. "Any kind of immediate start would cause a delay in payments," she told the committee and asked the committee to consider staffing support to avoid disruptions.
A DBEDT representative from the Creative Industries Division (CID) spoke in strong support of HB450 and the department's written testimony, and the committee agreed to include the additional FTE the department requested.
Chair Janae Capella said the committee would request in its report that the foundation be given two years to complete the transition successfully. The committee then voted to pass HB450 with the described amendments; the clerk recorded no no votes and noted Representative Ray Zoda absent from the vote.
The committee did not adopt a specific immediate change in funding lines at the hearing but included in its report language to provide the foundation time and additional staffing assistance for the administrative transition. Committee members signaled that the extra FTE in DBEDT should be included to reduce implementation disruption.
