STAND. COM. REP. NO.  591

 

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2011

 

RE:   H.B. No. 960

 

 

 

 

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

 

Sir:

 

     Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 960 entitled:

 

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LOW-INCOME HOUSING,"

 

begs leave to report as follows:

 

     The purpose of this bill is to encourage the development of low-income housing by providing affordable housing developers with sufficient equity to finance construction, and by decreasing the funding uncertainty inherent in the current tax syndication system.  To this end, this bill establishes a program for granting low-income housing tax credit loans administered by the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC), in lieu of low-income housing tax credits, and authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds to fund the low-income housing tax credit loans.

 

     HHFDC, the City and County of Honolulu Department of Community Services; Office of Affordable Housing for the Diocese of Honolulu; Catholic Charities Hawaii; Hawaii Association of Realtors; Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii; Stanford Carr Development, LLC; Albert C. Kobayashi, Inc.; and a concerned individual submitted testimony in support of this bill. The Tax Foundation of Hawaii, Department of Budget and Finance, and Department of Taxation offered comments on this measure.

 

 

 

 

     While your Committee appreciates the tax credit incentive contained in this bill to address homelessness and affordable housing in the State, your Committee prefers H.B. No. 1013, relating to low-income housing tax credits, and H.B. No. 1508, relating to low-income housing, as the preferred means to grant low-income housing tax credit loans and authorize the issuance of general obligation bonds to fund the loans.

 

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 960 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

 

 

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

 

 

 

 

____________________________

RIDA T.R. CABANILLA, Chair