STAND. COM. REP. NO. 3181

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 2378

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-First State Legislature

Regular Session of 2022

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary, to which was referred S.B. No. 2378 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO THE TAXATION BOARD OF REVIEW,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to enhance the administration of the Taxation Board of Review.

Specifically, the measure:

(1) Replaces the current, volunteer ten-member Taxation Board of Review with a salaried, full-time three-member board;

(2) Authorizes board members to validate board actions by a majority of the members who heard the appeal;

(3) Clarifies that board meetings are contested case hearings and provides notice requirements;

(4) Clarifies the legal and evidentiary framework the board may use in reaching its decisions; and

(5) Appropriates moneys for salaries for board members and staff.

Your Committees received written comments in support of this measure from the Department of Taxation.

Your Committees received written comments on this measure from the Department of Budget and Finance and Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committees find that the establishment of a full-time, professional Taxation Board of Review will help reduce the Department of Taxation's significant backlog of appeals, and ensure the fair and expeditious resolution of those appeals.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Specifying that the three members of the new Taxation Board of Review are "salaried members;"

(2) Clarifying that the existing volunteer members of the board may hold over in office until their successors are appointed and qualified;

(3) Changing the appropriation from $518,452 to an unspecified amount; and

(4) Changing the effective date to July 1, 2050, to facilitate further discussion on the measure.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 2378, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Third Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 2378, S.D. 1.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Ways and Means and Judiciary,

________________________________ KARL RHOADS, Chair

________________________________ DONOVAN M. DELA CRUZ, Chair