STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2454

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3218

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committee on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs, to which was referred S.B. No. 3218 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO BONDS,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to conform state law concerning county debt limits to permit counties to exclude housing infrastructure growth bonds from the debt limit of the counties, if a constitutional amendment authorizing the use of housing infrastructure growth bonds and excluding housing infrastructure growth bonds from determinations of the counties' funded debt is ratified.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the Stadium Authority; Hawaii Housing Finance and Development Corporation; Office of Planning and Sustainable Development; Hawaii Community Development Authority; Pacific Resource Partnership; D.R. Horton Hawaii; Hawaiʻi Association of REALTORS; Gentry Companies; Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaiʻi, Inc.; Housing Hawaiʻi's Future; Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters; and Kobayashi Group.

Your Committee finds that infrastructure financing is one of the biggest barriers to affordable housing development in the State. While a proposed constitutional amendment authorizing the counties to issue housing infrastructure growth bonds and exclude those bonds from county debt limit calculations has been proposed to address this barrier, conforming amendments to the Hawaii Revised Statutes will be necessary to implement the housing policy objectives of that measure. Housing infrastructure growth bonds facilitate the construction of housing infrastructure and are therefore an integral part of all projected housing developments statewide. This measure will operationalize the State's strategy to accelerate housing development, particularly in transit‑oriented development areas and other priority growth areas.

Your Committee has amended this measure by making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

As affirmed by the record of votes of the members of your Committee on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs that is attached to this report, your Committee is in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3218, as amended herein, and recommends that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3218, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committee on Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committee on Energy and Intergovernmental Affairs,

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GLENN WAKAI, Chair