Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2003

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred S.B. No. 1421, S.D. 1, entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to provide a twenty-five per cent earned income deduction for public housing tenants in determining their income-based rental rate.

Your Committee concurs with the findings of your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing that the issue of calculating public housing rental rates is a difficult and complex matter. On one hand, the working poor are paying as much as fifty per cent of their income for rent -- which often leaves them with little or nothing after paying for other expenses. But others would argue that present income deductions for tenants are sufficient and specifically serve as an incentive for tenants to achieve financial self-sufficiency -- which would mean lower costs for the State, especially during austere economic times.

As with your Committee on Commerce, Consumer Protection and Housing, your Committee would like to consider and discuss this matter further and, therefore, has left the bill unamended with an effective date of July 1, 2050.

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. 1421, S.D. 1, and recommends that it pass Third Reading.