Senate committee passes housekeeping bill to consolidate UH conference center funds

The Senate Committee on Higher Education on March 11 passed House Bill 1169, which consolidates two existing conference-center statutes into a single Conference Center Revolving Fund statute and repeals the duplicate provision. The measure primarily updates statutory housekeeping across University of Hawaii campuses that operate conference centers.

Calvert Young, speaking for the university, described the bill as a housekeeping measure that "consolidates them into 1 conference center fund statute and then allows for all of the campuses to use a centralized fund." The committee's recommendation included an amendment to change the bill's effective date to "upon approval."

Nut graf: The bill removes duplicate statutory language for conference centers (Hilo and the community colleges) and centralizes authority over a single revolving fund intended to allow campuses to share conference-center revenue and expenditures. Committee members signaled urgency to clear the item from their docket.

Committee members voted to pass the bill with the effective-date amendment; no further policy debate or dollar-figure discussions were recorded during the committee's decision session.

Ending: The measure was adopted and will move forward with the amended effective date. The committee did not discuss operational policy changes or specific financial projections on the record.