Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2005

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources, to which was referred H.B. No. 1757 entitled:

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose of this bill is to increase the inventory of and protect or enhance conservation and watershed lands in the state. This bill gives a conservation land tax credit of an unspecified percentages of the appraised value with an unspecified cap and an unspecified percentage of the amount invested to protect or enhance the natural condition of the conservation and watershed lands to taxpayers who:

The bill makes the tax credit contingent upon increased tax collections.

The Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Land Use Research Foundation, Nature Conservancy, Ko'olau Mountains Watershed Partnership, and Sierra Club, Hawaii Chapter, testified in support of the bill.

The Department of Taxation testified in opposition to the bill. The Department of Land and Natural Resources and the Tax Foundation of Hawaii provided comments on the bill.

Your Committee finds that this bill grants economic incentives to encourage landowners to provide the proper stewardship of the environmentally sensitive and valuable lands in Hawaii.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Water, Land, & Ocean Resources that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 1757 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to the Committee on Finance.