STAND. COM. REP. 2256

Honolulu, Hawaii

, 2004

RE: S.B. No. 2112

S.D. 1

 

 

Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Education, to which was referred S.B. No. 2112 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO PUBLIC SCHOOL TEACHER TAX CREDIT,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide a tax credit to public school teachers of $500 for teachers with less than five years of experience and $250 for teachers with five or more years of experience.

Your Committee received testimony in support of the measure from the Department of Education and Hawaii State Teachers Association. Your Committee received testimony in opposition to the measure from the Department of Taxation. Your Committee received comments from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that a modest tax credit for teachers could serve as one small component in a larger program designed to facilitate teacher retention, thereby lessening the teacher shortage. The size of the tax credit is also comparable to what virtually all teachers routinely spend out-of-pocket annually for such miscellaneous items as pencils, erasers, rewards, and other supplies for their classes. Such expenses are directly related to their work and should not come out of a teacher's hard-earned paycheck.

 

Your Committee has amended the measure by:

(1) Clarifying that "experience" means experience in the Department of Education, as determined by the department; and

(2) Clarifying that "teacher" means employees who spend not less than seventy per cent of their formal employment time in the direct classroom instruction of students; and

(3) Changing the effective date to provide that the Act shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2003, rather than 2002.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Education that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2112, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2112, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.

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

____________________________

NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair