Honorable Robert Bunda

President of the Senate

Twenty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2004

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Economic Development and Health, to which was referred S.B. No. 2457 entitled:

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this measure is to grant a tax credit to small businesses to encourage small business owners to purchase long-term care insurance for their employees.

Testimony in support of this measure was received from the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, the Healthcare Association of Hawaii, the Association of Insurance and Financial Advisors, and AssistGuide Inc. The Tax Foundation of Hawaii offered comments on the measure. The Department of Taxation testified in opposition to the measure.

Your Committees find that Hawaii will experience a rapid growth in the elderly and disabled populations in the near future. These groups will make substantial demands on long-term care services. This measure is designed to encourage the purchase of necessary long-term care insurance by small business owners for their employees by providing a tax incentive to these small business owners. This measure, while still a work in progress, represents a proactive approach by the State in meeting this foreseeable demand on health services in a cost-efficient manner.

Your Committees have amended the measure by amending the definition of "small business" to mean businesses that employ less than one thousand full-time or part-time employees, reducing the amount of tax credit that may be claimed by a small business for each employee, and making other technical amendments.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Economic Development and Health that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2457, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2457, S.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Ways and Means.