STAND. COM. REP. NO. 1283

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: H.B. No. 923

H.D. 1

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Second State Legislature

Regular Session of 2023

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Housing, to which was referred H.B. No. 923, H.D. 1, entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BONDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require counties with a private activity bond issuance program to exhaust their allotment before applying to the State for the state allocation;

(2) Require the State, if it receives a county allocation, to award that same amount to a project or projects in that county before awarding to projects in other counties;

(3) Require a project to first apply to the county in which the project is located, if the county has a private activity bond issuance program, before applying to the State; and

(4) Require the directors of finance of each county to report to the Department of Budget and Finance and Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation the amount of the county's unused or unassigned allocation.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation, Office of Housing and Community Development of the County of Hawaii, and Affordable Housing Connections LLC.

Your Committee finds that private activity bonds are currently the most limited multi-family rental housing financing resource. This measure will ensure fairness and equity in the allocation of private activity bonds, especially for the counties of Maui and Hawaii, which do not have private activity bond issuance programs.

Your Committee has amended this measure by inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Housing that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of H.B. No. 923, H.D. 1, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as H.B. No. 923, H.D. 1, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Housing,

________________________________

STANLEY CHANG, Chair