STAND. COM. REP. NO 87

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                

 

RE:    S.B. No. 783

       S.D. 1

 

 

 

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Twenty-Ninth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2017

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 783 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO AGRICULTURE,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to extend the important agricultural land qualified agricultural cost tax credit beyond 2017 and repeal the qualification that the tax credit may only be claimed after the attractions and educational facilities tax credit for Ko Olina Resort and Marina and Makaha Resort is repealed, exhausted, or expired.

 

     Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Department of Agriculture.  Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Department of Taxation and Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

 

     Your Committee finds that the clearing of and soil restoration to fallow pineapple and sugar plantation lands can be costly to farmers wishing to use the land for agricultural purposes.  This measure is intended to assist such farmers and encourage greater growth of the State's agricultural industry.

 

     Your Committee has amended this measure by specifying that "qualified agricultural costs" include expenditures for the clearing of, removal of trees and debris from, and soil restoration to correct any nutrient deficiency that is present on, former sugar and pineapple plantation lands.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Agriculture and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 783, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 783, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

 

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Agriculture and Environment,

 

 

 

________________________________

MIKE GABBARD, Chair