STAND. COM. REP. NO.  656-08

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

 

RE:   H.B. No. 3251

      H.D. 1

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committees on Human Services & Housing and Health, to which was referred H.B. No. 3251 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TAXATION,"

 

beg leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to encourage the development of affordable housing or a community health care facility within a mixed-use transit-oriented joint development project by exempting these projects from the general excise tax (GET).

 

     The Hawaii Association of REALTORS, Environmental Planning Solutions, LLC, Hawaii Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, and the University of Hawaii at Manoa College of Social Sciences Public Policy Center testified in support of this bill.  The Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC) and City and County of Honolulu Department of Planning and Permitting opposed this measure.  The Department of Taxation provided comments.

 

     Your Committees have amended this bill by:

 

     (1)  Transferring the authority to approve and certify GET exemptions for community health care facilities from HHFDC to the Department of Health;

 

     (2)  Removing provisions that require a certain amount of costs to be spent for rental housing units and a certain number of units for lower-income households;

 

     (3)  Removing provisions that require the United States Department of Transportation to take part in the approval process;

 

     (4)  Requiring that state agencies involved in this measure consult with the counties with regard to the adoption of rules to streamline the approval process for mixed-use transit-oriented joint development projects; and

 

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

 

     As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Human Services & Housing and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 3251, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 3251, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Human Services & Housing and Health,

 

 

____________________________

JOSHUA B. GREEN, M.D., Chair

 

____________________________

MAILE SHIMABUKURO, Chair