Testimony In Opposition
To House Bill 2737: Relating to the Disposition of Public Lands
The House Committee on Finance
February 17, 2010
Room 308
10:00 a.m.
The following testimony in opposition to HB2737 is submitted on behalf of the Native Hawaiian organization Mauna Kea Anaina Hou.
Aloha Chairman Oshiro and Members of the Committee of Finance,
We are opposed to HB2737 for a number of reasons:
- Sacred Sites of Hawai`i Should Not Be Sold: Mauna Kea has enormous cultural and religious significance
We are opposed to the sale of any and all public trust lands in Hawai`i. We especially object to sale of sacred lands including the summit lands of Mauna Kea.
Mauna Kea is place of enormous cultural and religious significance to the Hawaiian peoples and has been for millennia. Mauna Kea is a wahi pana and the burial ground of our most sacred ancestors. The summit landscape is designated a state and national historic district and landmark. It is home to threaten and endangered plant and animal species found nowhere else on planet earth. The star knowledge that our ancestors use to navigate and people the vast Pacific Ocean generations before western science originates from the summit’s cultural landscape--knowledge that is still taught today.
MAUNA KEA IS NOT FOR SALE!
2. Mauna Kea Is A Vast Community Resource That Should Not be Sold
Mauna is accessed and utilized by many people in the community including but not limited, to Native Hawaiian cultural and religious practitioners, hunters, hikers, bird watchers, conservationists, naturalists, scientists (i.e. geologist, anthropologists, biologists, entomologist, vulcanologists, professional and amateur astronomers etc.), various recreational users as well as those who simply wish to view the heavens and find spiritual inspiration and restoration.
3. Mauna Kea Lands Are Conservation District And Natural Area Reserve Lands (NARS)--Which Serve The Greater Public Health, Safety And Welfare--And Should Not be Sold
The language contained in HB2737 relies on incorrect assumptions. HB2737 states, “The State holds title to many parcels of land that are not essential to the provision of public health, safety, and welfare services by the State or county. These lands may be sold to close or reduce the looming deficit.”
In 1961, the forestry and watershed lands of Mauna Kea where designated conservation district lands, which serve the public health, safety and welfare of the people of Hawai`i. Mauna Kea is the principle aquifer providing drinking water for the people of Hawai`i Island.
Hawai`i Revised Statutes Chapter 183C, which governs all conservation districts, including the conservation district of Mauna Kea states,
The Legislature finds that lands within the state land use conservation district contain important natural resources essential to the preservation of the State’s fragile natural ecosystems and the sustainability of the State’s water supply. It is therefore, the intent of the legislature to conserve, protect and preserve the important natural resources of the State through appropriate management and use to promote their long-term sustainability and the public health, safety and welfare. [183C-1]
HB2737 also suggests selling the Mauna Kea Ice Age Natural Area Reserve. Natural Area Reserve System (NARS) lands contain the last remaining intact native habitat and are home to the most threatened and endangered species in Hawai`i. The NARS are very important to welfare and health of Hawai`i’s because they protect vital ecosystems,that in turn provide for human health and welfare.
- Mauna Kea Should Not Be Sold, BUT Users Should Pay Rent
The wealthy international governments and corporations still ONLY pay $1.00 per year in lease rent for the use of Mauna Kea.
HB2737 relies on Hawai`i Revised Statutes 171 (HRS 171) to justify selling Mauna Kea lands, however, HRS 171 requires the Board of Land and Natural Resources (BLNR) to charge “fair-market” lease rent for the use of public trust lands. The BLNR has failed to comply with HRS 171.
In the case of Mauna Kea, the BLNR has failed to comply with HRS 171, by not charging proper lease and allowing some of the wealthiest foreign nations and corporations to pay ONLY $1.00 per year in lease rent. This is outrageous--and it violates existing law. If the international observatories collectively paid $50 million per year in lease rent--a reasonable amount-- in just two years the state would collect $100 million. Imagine how much money the state would have collected if the BLNR had been following the law, collecting proper rent over the last 30 years. BLNR needs to collect rent on public trust land, not ask lawmakers to sell the legacy and homeland of our children.
We are strongly opposed to HB2737 and we respectfully ask you not pass HB2737 from this committee.
Ms. Kealoha Pisciotta, President
Mauna Kea Anaina Hou
P.O. Box 5864
Hilo, Hawai`i 96720
Replies
HB2737 Directs the Department of Land and Natural Resources to fund the general fund by disposing of public lands. Also directs the Department to dispose of public lands leased to not-for-profit organizations meeting certain criteria.
This is involving DLNR selling lands which includes Maunakea to pay their bills.
Sending ahead my testimony before the legislature for your consideration.
Also, if you have time when the next hearing is going to happen please come and support it and me when I go before these people. Please respond when you get this e-mail if you have time in March (first week). I will keep you on the list.
Please send it around to those you know who would be willing to receive, support and come out to testify or just to support me when I'm testifying.We need bodies there.
Pono, if you can come please e-mail me.
Also, please send me e-mail addresses of those who are will to support in whatever way they can. We need bodies there. Written testimonies are fine too if you cannot make it. If you know how to access the legislature do it...if not, go to: CAPITOL.HAWAII.GOV and search there for all the information. If that doesn't help, please e-mail me.
Mahalo,
Kawehi
--- On Wed, 2/17/10, R. Kawehi Kanui wrote:
> From: R. Kawehi Kanui
> Subject: Selling of Crown and Government Lands
> To: "Faye Hanohano" , "Mele Carroll"
> Cc: kawehi11@yahoo.com
> Date: Wednesday, February 17, 2010, 10:13 PM
> Aloha Reps. Hanohano and Carroll,
>
> IN OPPOSITION TO: HB 2737
> FEB. 17, 2010
>
> My name is Rita Kawehi Kanui Gill, an applicant living in
> Waimanalo, on the Hawaiian homelands waiting list since
> 1970, claimant in Kalim vs. State of Hawai'i, Po'o
> Hewahewanui 'Ohana council and chairperson, 'Ohana Pono
> Independent Hawaiian Islands (OPIHI) who are protected
> persons under Article 4, 1949, Geneva, Convention, IV who
> opposes the sale of any lands in Hawai'i to pay the DLNR
> bills and sneak in to change the way the state plans to
> operate their programs, and sneaking in to change the system
> again to meet their goals of stealing Hawaiian lands, by
> "legality" is not pono.
>
> I did send in a testimony this morning before 10 a.m.,
> don't know if you got it on time.
>
> If we have to work, borrow, mortgage, seek grants etc. to
> operate our programs why shouldn't the DLNR or the
> state? Don't think we don't know what the task force
> to change the system is doing. We know how to read.
>
> Why do you make it easier for the DLNR to usurp our lands,
> rights and dignity? Aren't you a Hawaiian? Use
> your head and help the DLNR from selling our lands that will
> only have to come back to us down the road. Do you not know
> that these kinds of actions will lead to civil war? We
> don't want that. Do you? I know they do. Stop
> while you are in the position to do what is pono for the
> sakes of your kupuna, children, grand children and everybody
> else living in Hawai'i, who will all be affected by this bad
> legislation.
>
> I am not happy about this bill sneaking by us, without
> giving us the time of day. Had I known ahead of time, I
> would have been there to oppose the bill with all of my
> people and facts. I hope we will have another
> opportunity to sway your minds at that legislature. No
> one should be allowed to touch lands that is not theirs to
> begin with and which is in a trust for our children and
> grand children in perpetuity.
>
> Hawai'i is under an illegal occupation since the
> Spanish-American war.
>
> Under Article 43, 1907 Hague Convention IV, which states;
> "the occupant must administer the laws of the occupied" of
> which we, Hawaiians are occupied illegally by the US
> military and now the state of Hawai'i. DLNR should be
> tapping the federal government for more funds, not us,
> because those lands are our lands and we can prove it.
> Can the DLNR prove by a Deed of Trust given to them by Queen
> Liliuokalani that they got the land with her
> permission? I don't believe so.
>
> We are in strong opposition to any selling of Crown and
> Government lands the state calls ceded, since there is no
> treaty of cededing lands to the state, for only a treaty can
> do that, not a resolution of which the Newlands Resolution
> was just that. In 1959, the federal government gave the
> state of Hawai'i the trust responsibility to care for us and
> our lands. Not to do whatever they want with our
> lands. This is why the state is in trouble today.
>
> Enough cheating of the Hawaiian people. For spiritual
> reasons the state is in a pickel. When are you all going to
> learn? The defunct department of land and natural
> resources must do what is pono...and do what we all have to
> do, is to work for their money and don't touch any of our
> lands unless they can show that they were deeded these lands
> from our Queen Liliuokalani and the Hawaiian government or
> raise the taxes on the whole state, except for Hawaiian
> homelands which is protected by the laws of our Legislature
> on June 7, 1848, enacted a Statute on March 8, King
> Kamehameha III, on
>
> We are sorry that the state has to resort to theft and
> breaking the trust responsibilities again, after Judge Hifo
> ruled against doing this very action, of selling Crown and
> Gvoernment lands and without our input, and this legislature
> is going to allow them to do that, will only bring about
> more suits raising the costs by you and the DLNR because
> they cannot afford to manage their programs? I have
> suggestions and other ways they can get their money.
>
> l.) Collect more fees from people moving to Hawai'i.
> 2.) Charge more from the rich who want to build houses in
> Hawai'i.
> 3.) Up the taxes on those who own boats and yatchs in
> Hawai'i.
> 4.) Raise $2 more on yearly taxes from every renter and
> homeowners in Hawai'i.
>
> OR dialogue on the option of independence with a plan and
> proposal that will benefit all of Hawai'i, which those two
> laws I mentioned earlier are a part of resolution to the
> present problems int his whole state.
>
> We implore you and everyone involved in trying to pass this
> bill to stop,
> look and listen to the voices of our na kupuna, makua and
> keiki..
>
> Please inform us of the next hearing ASAP, not the day
> before, but as soon as you know it's going to happen and I
> will come and testify in person.
>
> Mahalo,
> Rita Kawehi Kanui Gill, Chairperson
> Ohana Pono Independent Hawaiian Islands
> A Native Hawaiiand Tenants Group
>
>
>
>