STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2455

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3219

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. 3219 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT PROPOSING AMENDMENTS TO ARTICLE VII, SECTIONS 12 AND 13, OF THE HAWAII STATE CONSTITUTION,"

begs leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to propose constitutional amendments to expressly provide that the Legislature may authorize political subdivisions, such as the counties, to issue housing infrastructure growth bonds, and exclude these bonds from determinations of the funded debt of the political subdivisions for specified public works, public improvements, or other actions necessary for new housing development.

Your Committee received testimony in support of this measure from the 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; Castle & Cooke Homes Hawaiʻi, Inc.; Housing Hawaiʻi's Future; NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association Hawaii Chapter; Hawaii Regional Council of Carpenters; Kobayashi Group; Land Use Research Foundation of Hawaii; and one individual.

Your Committee received testimony in opposition to this measure from one individual.

Your Committee received comments on this measure from the Tax Foundation of Hawaii.

Your Committee finds that expanding affordable housing throughout the State will require significant investment in infrastructure, including water, wastewater, drainage, roads, and sea-level rise mitigation, especially in transit-oriented development areas and other priority growth zones. Current funding mechanisms are fragmented and insufficient to meet the scale and timing of these needs. Your Committee further finds that the counties play a critical role in planning and delivering the infrastructure necessary to support new housing development, including water, sewers, roads, and other essential improvements that make housing development feasible. By establishing a clear constitutional basis for housing infrastructure growth bonds, this measure strengthens local capacity to finance these vital components of housing development without adversely affecting county debt limits.

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. 3219 and recommends that it pass Second Reading and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and 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