STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1000

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2005

RE: S.B. No. 1366

S.D. 2

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1366, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TAXATION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to authorize each county to levy a county general excise and use tax surcharge to fund public rail transit or other transportation improvements.

Your Committee finds that the counties require additional funding in order to carry out mass transit or public transit projects.

Your Committee has amended this bill by:

(1) Deleting the provisions allowing the counties to levy a county general excise and use tax surcharge and replacing them with provisions to increase the rate of the state general excise tax and the state use tax from four to five per cent on January 1, 2007, but only on the condition that the city and county of Honolulu adopts a resolution no later than January 1, 2006, by super majority, stating that the city and county of Honolulu will begin the process of establishing a mass transit system;

(2) Appropriating $200,000,000 for the city and county of Honolulu, $20,000,000 each for Hawaii and Maui county, and $10,000,000 for Kauai county for transit projects for fiscal year 2006-2007, effective January 1, 2007;

(3) Creating an excise/food tax credit;

(4) Changing the amounts of the standard deduction for state income tax to unspecified amounts;

(5) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2099, for the purpose of stimulating further discussion;

(6) Separating the sections relating to the general excise and use tax and transit projects and appropriations into a part I of the bill, the sections relating to changes in the state tax code into a separate part II of the bill, and the Ramseyer and effective date sections into part III of the bill, and appropriately re-numbering the sections of the bill; and

(7) Making technical nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and style.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Ways and Means that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 1366, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 1366, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

BRIAN T. TANIGUCHI, Chair