STAND. COM. REP. 2274
Honolulu, Hawaii
, 2004
RE: S.B. No. 2422
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. 2422 entitled:
"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO TEACHERS,"
begs leave to report as follows:
The purpose of this measure is to provide a tax credit for landlords who provide housing for teachers employed in hard-to-staff public schools.
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 bill from the Department of Taxation. Your Committee received comments from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.
Your Committee finds that housing has always been a concern and a problem for Hawaii's public school teachers who are willing to work in geographically isolated areas with limited housing stock. Offering landlords a tax credit for having teachers as tenants would be very beneficial to both parties and facilitate teacher recruitment and retention.
Your Committee has amended the measure by:
(1) Replacing all references to "hard-to-staff" with "geographically hard-to-fill" to conform with standard language used by the Department of Education;
(2) Requiring the Housing and Community Development Corporation of Hawaii to maintain a current list of fair market rental and lease rates for areas where teacher housing is eligible for the teacher housing tax credit program;
(3) Making uniform all references to applicable tax years as those beginning after December 31, 2003;
(4) Capping the tax credit at one hundred dollars per month per claimant;
(5) Allowing the tax credit to be used against future tax liabilities; and
(6) Allowing teacher housing in the City and County of Honolulu and the County of Hawaii to be eligible for this program if it is located in the state senatorial district adjacent to that of the geographically hard-to-fill public school.
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. 2422, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2422, 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,
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____________________________ NORMAN SAKAMOTO, Chair |
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