STAND. COM. REP. NO.  587-08

Honolulu, Hawaii

                , 2008

RE:   H.B. No. 2668

      H.D. 1

Honorable Calvin K.Y. Say

Speaker, House of Representatives

Twenty-Fourth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2008

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Human Services & Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 2668 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose of this bill is to make a variety of changes to Hawaii's housing laws, including:

     (1)  Transferring from the Department of Budget and Finance (B&F) to the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation (HHFDC), the responsibility for administering the issuance of special purpose revenue bonds for low- and moderate-income housing projects;

     (2)  Transferring entirely to the state, the private activity bond volume cap and allocating 80 percent of the cap to HHFDC and 20 percent to B&F;

     (3)  Requiring only grants to be made from the Rental Housing Trust Fund (RHTF) as equity gap financing; and

     (4)  Making permanent the 50 percent conveyance tax allocation to the RHTF.

     B&F, HHFDC, the Hawaii Association of REALTORS, and Tax Foundation of Hawaii provided comments.

     Your Committee has amended this bill by replacing its contents with provisions that require public housing projects and all housing projects administered or held by the Hawaii Public Housing Authority to remain affordable in perpetuity.

     As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Human Services & Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 2668, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 2668, H.D. 1, and be referred to the Committee on Finance.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Human Services & Housing,

____________________________

MAILE SHIMABUKURO, Chair