Assigned to GOV & APPROP                                                                                                        FOR COMMITTEE

ARIZONA STATE SENATE

Forty-seventh Legislature, Second Regular Session

FACT SHEET FOR S.B. 1011

appropriation; Pearl Harbor memorial

Purpose

            Appropriates $69,000 from the state General Fund in FY 2006-2007 to the Department of Veterans’ Services for a new Pearl Harbor memorial and visitors center to be located in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Background

            According to the official newsletter of the Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund, in 1980 the USS Arizona Memorial Museum and Visitor Center was built over the sunken battleship, USS Arizona, to honor the 1,177 sailors and marines who lost their lives in World War II. The USS Arizona Memorial is visited by over 4,500 people daily. It was originally designed to accommodate 2,000 persons. The structure is built on a landfill and was designed to settle 18 inches but has already settled 30 inches in some sections. It is nearing the water table and is threatened by the water in the harbor.

            A new memorial museum and visitor center is being proposed that will double the current capacity and will be engineered to be secure and stable. Dr. Ronald D. Sugar, the national chairman for the campaign to raise support for the new Pearl Harbor Memorial Museum and Visitor Center, states that he is planning to raise $34 million in public donations and public funds to build the memorial.

            S.B. 1011 appropriates $69,000 from the state General Fund in FY 2006-2007 to the Department of Veterans’ Services.

Provisions

1. Appropriates $69,000 from the state General Fund to the Department of Veterans’ Services to be deposited into the Veterans’ Donations Fund to be transferred and deposited into the national Pearl Harbor Memorial Fund.

2. Stipulates that the appropriation amount of $69,000 represents $1.00 for each Arizona serviceman and servicewoman who served during World War II.

3. States that the intended use of the appropriated amounts is to build a new national memorial museum and visitor center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

4. Becomes effective on the general effective date.

Prepared by Senate Research

January 10, 2006

CMH/ES/jas