State House lawmakers voted today to recommend a bill that would transfer authority over the summit area of Maunakea from the University of Hawaii to a new state entity.
House Bill 2024 would create the Maunakea Stewardship Authority to manage all lands above the 6,500-foot level on the mauna, based on the recommendations of a Maunakea Working Group formed last year.
A joint hearing of three House committees — Water and Land, Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs, and Finance — discussed the bill today. The Water and Land chair, Kohala Rep. David Tarnas, reiterated repeatedly that the bill is a “work in progress” and moved to recommend the bill’s passage with amendments.
All three committees ultimately voted to recommend the bill be passed, but not without serious misgivings from several lawmakers.
The Finance and Water and Land committees voted unanimously in support of the bill, but two members of the Committee on Judiciary and Hawaiian Affairs voted against it.
Having passed its three House committees, the bill will now face a third reading in the House before crossing over to the Senate.