STAND. COM. REP. NO.96

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2003

RE: S.B. No. 596

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 596 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO ENERGY CONSERVATION TAX CREDIT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to allow taxpayers claiming the energy conservation tax credit the option to claim one-fifth of the tax credit in each of five successive years beginning in the year of the purchase.

Testimony supporting this measure was submitted by the Hawaii Solar Energy Association and R&R Services, Inc. Comments on this measure were submitted by the Department of Taxation and Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that under existing law, the energy conservation tax credits are applied to a taxpayer's income tax liability with any excess credit applied against the taxpayer's tax liability in subsequent years. This measure would allow a taxpayer to claim the energy tax credit over a five-year period.

Your Committee has amended this measure by extending the energy conservation system "installment and placed in service" indefinitely, to allow taxpayers to take advantage of the credit in years to come.

Your Committee emphasizes that this measure provides an option to taxpayers rather than a requirement to take the credit evenly over five successive years.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Environment that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 596, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 596, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

J. KALANI ENGLISH, Chair