STAND. COM. REP. NO. 964

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: H.B. No. 1303

H.D. 2

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Finance, to which was referred H.B. No. 1303, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to address Hawaii's critical affordable housing and homelessness problem by, among other things:

(1) Providing flexibility to the counties in their land use density restrictions, to allow for the development of low-income housing rentals;

(2) Establishing a general excise tax exemption for developers of low-income rental housing;

(3) Providing that Rental Housing Trust Fund (RHTF) loans and grants to developers may be provided when 50 percent or more of the available units are for persons with incomes at or below 80, instead of 60 percent of the median family income;

(4) Requiring ten percent of general excise taxes on residential rentals be deposited into the RHTF;

 

(5) Establishing a sliding scale for the payment of conveyance taxes;

(6) Exempting from the conveyance tax, conveyances by nonprofit organizations certified for low-income housing development;

(7) Increasing the amount of conveyance taxes transferred into the RHTF from 25 to 50 percent;

(8) Appropriating funds into the RHTF;

(9) Declaring a moratorium on demolition of decommissioned public housing and offering the housing to nonprofit entities or government agencies for rehabilitation into emergency transitional shelter facilities or rental units;

(10) Appropriating funds for the expansion of emergency and transitional shelter facilities serving the homeless, upon meeting certain conditions;

(11) Refocusing Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii (HCDCH) housing developments on lower cost housing projects serving only persons with incomes 140 percent or less of the area median income;

(12) Splitting HCDCH into two entities:

(a) The Hawaii Public Housing Administration to perform the function of developing and maintaining public housing; and

(b) The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Administration to perform the function of housing financing and development;

(13) Repealing the RHTF Advisory Commission; and

(14) Establishing a Legislative Affordable Rental Housing and Homeless Task Force.

A member of the Maui County Council, The Nature Conservancy of Hawaii, League of Women Voters of Hawaii, Pacific Housing Assistance Corporation, Hawaii Coalition of Christian Churches, Life of the Land, Affordable Housing and Homeless Alliance, and many concerned individuals testified in support of this measure. HCDCH, the City and County of Honolulu Department of Community Services, Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii, Catholic Charities Hawaii, and Partners in Care supported the intent of this bill.

The Department of Taxation, City and County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting, and Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, opposed this measure. The Hawaii Association of Realtors and Koolau Mountains Watershed Project provided comments.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2010, to encourage further discussion; and

(2) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for clarity, consistency, and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Finance that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1303, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 1303, H.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Finance,

 

____________________________

DWIGHT TAKAMINE, Chair