STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1236

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE:    H.B. No. 960

       H.D. 1

       S.D. 2

Honorable Shan S. Tsutsui

President of the Senate

Twenty-Sixth State Legislature

Regular Session of 2011

State of Hawaii

Sir:

     Your Committee on Ways and Means, to which was referred H.B. No. 960, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO LOW-INCOME HOUSING,"

begs leave to report as follows:

     The purpose and intent of this measure is to authorize the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation to grant low-income housing tax credit loans to certain owners of qualified low-income buildings.

     In addition, this measure authorizes the issuance of general obligation bonds to fund the loans.

     Your Committee received comments in support of this measure from Karen Seddon, Executive Director, Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; Samuel E.H. Moku, Director, Department of Community Services, City and County of Honolulu; Ed. Gross, President, The Image Group; Kevin R. Carney, Vice President, Hawaii, EAH Housing; Stanford S. Carr, President, and Jesse Wu, Vice President, Stanford Carr Development, LLC; Kevin R. Carney, President, Housing Hawaii; Michael T. Miyabara, FASLA, Miyabara Associates, LLC; Les Masutani, Vice President, Coastal Construction Company, Inc.; Kirt Pruyn, Manager of Business Development & Community Relations, Hawaiian Dredging Construction Company; Rick Moss, PE, MOSS Engineering, Inc.; Marc Matsubara, Vice President, Island Flooring Co., Inc.; Craig Hirai, Chair of the Subcommittee on Affordable Housing, Hawaii Association of REALTORS; and Makani Maeva, Director of Development, Vitus Development, LLC.

     Your Committee received comments on this measure from David M. Louie, Attorney General, Department of the Attorney General; Kalbert K. Young, Director, Department of Budget and Finance; and the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

     Your Committee finds that this measure gives certain owners of qualified low-income buildings the option of receiving low-income housing tax credit loans from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation in lieu of claiming low-income housing tax credits under the income tax laws.  Low-income housing tax credit loans will serve as an alternative source of gap financing to developers of affordable housing, thus addressing one of the greatest challenges to developing affordable housing.

     Your Committee has amended this measure by:

     (1)  Changing the effective date to July 1, 2117, to facilitate continued discussion on the measure; and

     (2)  Making a technical amendment to reflect existing statutory language.

     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 H.B. No. 960, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 960, H.D. 1, S.D. 2.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Ways and Means,

____________________________

DAVID Y. IGE, Chair