House Standing Committee on Economic Development & Technology

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to the Committee on Economic Development and Technology. Today is Wednesday, February 5th, 2025, and it is 10:03. We are at Conference Room 423. And before we start testimonies, I have to read out some guidance for everyone, so bear with me. Sorry, I just ran, and I'm kind of out of breath.

I realize I need to exercise more. If you are disconnected unexpectedly, you may attempt to rejoin the meeting. If disconnected while presenting testimony, you may be allowed to continue if time permits. Please note, the House is not responsible for any bad Internet connections on the testifier's end.

In the event of network failure, it may be necessary to reschedule the hearing or schedule a meeting for decision making. In that case, an appropriate notice will be posted. Please avoid using any trademark or copyrighted images. That's particularly to those in Zoom. And for everyone else, let's please be civil and have a productive meeting.

Moving on to top of our agenda, HB 455. Our first testifier in support, we have DBEDT, Jimmy Tokioka or a representative. Please proceed.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. Dennis Ling with the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism. DBEDT stands on its written testimony supporting the intent of this bill. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Moving on to our Zoom testifier, Hawaii Food Industry Association, Lauren Zirbel in support.

Thank you, Chair. Lauren Zirbel on behalf of Hawaii Food Industry Association. We stand on our testimony in strong support of the measure. Mahalo.

Thank you. Moving on to our next testifier in Zoom, we have Tax Foundation of Hawaii, Tom Yamachika.

Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Tom Yamachika from Tax Foundation of Hawaii. We do not take issue with the program that sought to be established by this bill. We do question the need for another special fund. Even Budget and Finance has testified that it does not meet criteria in 37-52.3, so we don't think a special fund is appropriate. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to our testifier in person, we have the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii, Sherry Menor. Thank you so much. We have also in person, Holomua Collective with Josh Wisch in support.

Morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. Josh Wisch with Holomua Collaborative. Chair, thank you for introducing this bill in the first place. And just want to note that we have been talking with DBEDT as we've been working on this bill. And just to kind of underscore that.

I think one of the great purposes that it serves is DBEDT has a lot of really good programs to help with small businesses locally that they're doing a tremendous job with. The one kind of gap is there isn't really anything right now to help specifically with startup businesses. And we see this as a good way to fill that gap for businesses that aren't yet able to get commercial loans and to help get them up to that point. So with that, I'll stand on my testimony, and I'm here for any questions. Thanks so much.

Thank you. We have seven testifiers in support, zero in opposition, and two comments. Is there anybody in the room willing to testify? If not, moving on to our Zoom. There are no one. With no further testimony in person and Zoom, Members, are there any questions or comments?

With no questions and comments, we are going to move on to our next Bill. We have HB437. Our first justifier is going to be in person, DBEDT yes?

DBEDT stands in its written testimony supporting the intent of this mission.

Oh, thank you. Change from comments to support. That's great. Thanks, DEBDT. Moving on to our well, we have six testimonies in support, zero in opposition, one comment or now seven testimony in support. Is there any others in persif, please? Amy Agbayani, thank you very much.

I'm representing Hawai'i Friends for Civil Rights. We strongly support this and my testimony Slate.

Thank you.

Written testimony slate. Thank you.

Any others? All right, Zoom? None in zoom. Any questions from the Members or comments? Representative Tam?

My question is for DBEDT. Aloha Rep Tam. Aloha, and you know, these offices are not something that's new. Is there a way to calculate the return on investment from each of these offices and what's the average of that?

Well, because these offices serve as a trade and investment office. We have two offices, by the way, one in Beijing and one in Taiwan and those are the only other two offices we have.

The way to calculate the return on investment is the engagement that we have with either the organizations or the central government or provincial governments in which these offices are located in to determine the impact of investment or trade. A lot of it also is community driven. So it's not numerical, it's not quantifiable.

In a lot of instances it serves also as a quasi, if you will, consulate of the state in these areas to help people who are interested in visiting Hawaii or traveling to Hawaii for education, student attraction purposes and those other kinds of things which may not be quantified viable, but it's information driven. Thank you.

Thank you. And DBEDT, please provide the reports that for both the offices to our Members, so that way they can read up on what those offices have been doing as well.

Okay. We do have an annual report that is published annually, and we will make sure that the Committee gets it through.

Sir, appreciate it. All right, moving on. Is there any other further questions or comments? With no questions and comments, we're going to move on to our next item, HB650. And our first testifier in support is DBEDT.

Yes, DBEDT stands on its written testimony supporting the intent of this use.

Thank you. Would you like to also say something? Okay. Thank you. Moving on to our next. Is the Hawaii Department of Agriculture in support? Is there anyone here? Moving on to zoom, the Hawaii Food Industry Association, Lauren Zirbel?

Thank you, Chair. We'll stand on our testimony in support, mahalo.

Thank you. And also in Zoom, we have HK Enterprise, George Joseph in support. George?

Yes. Yes, I'm in support of the Bill.

Thank you. We have six testimonies in support, zero in opposition. Is there any other testifiers in person? In Zoom? With no testimonies in Zoom and in person, any questions by Committee Members or comments? With no questions and comments, we're going to move on to our next item, HB935.

And our first testimony is in person, again by DBEDT with comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Chung Chang, the Strategic Broadband Coordinator for Hawaii Broadband and Digital Equity Office, in DBEDT. Testifying on behalf of the Director. We stand on our written testimony providing comments. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to our next testifier, the Hawaii State Council on Development, Disabilities and Support. Thank you, Moving on to University of Hawaii System.

Morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Garret Yoshimi, Vice President for IT and CIO for University of Hawaii System. In my role as lead for two of the large broadband projects, federally funded broadband projects. We stand on our written testimony in support of the intent with comments. Happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. And last, we have Sean in Zoom.

Aloha. Yes, Sean Mclaughlin here in support of HB935. I think we can all appreciate, for folks who aren't connected well to technology and the Internet, that having a human help you is really important. And I think it's equally important-or maybe even more so-on islands like Moloka‘i and Lāna‘i.

So I think that might have been an oversight in the draft that it did not include those islands, but I hope the programs will. We know the library is an awesome institution to carry the torch forward. So thank you for this opportunity to offer support to this measure.

Thank you. We have three testimony in support, zero in opposition. And is there any others wishing to testify in person, in zoom?

Okay.

Yes. Please say your name.

My name is Kyle Swan. I strongly support this measure because people with disability needs adequate to the Internet. So please pass this measure. And please, if you have any question. Thank you.

Thank you for your testimony. Is there any others in Zoom? With no testimony in Zoom and in person, Committee Members, are there any comments or questions? Moving on with no comments and question to HB 934. And in person, we have the Honorable Lieutenant Governor Sylvia Luke in support.

Good morning, Chair and Vice Chair and Members of the Committee. On behalf of the entire Connect Kākou efforts, we are testifying in support. As we move towards digital opportunity and digital equity, we have the opportunity to use federal funds to provide access into many of the remote areas that don't have access currently.

Coming out of COVID, we realized that broadband is not just something nice to have, but it's an equity issue. And it's not just that, it's really a necessity. Whether it's from work, from home or even online opportunities or for work, online learning. There's telehealth. For some of our remote areas like in Lanai and Molokai, if you were to be at the airport just to check on the status of the flights, you know, you can't even do that in some of our neighboring islands. And that's kind of a travesty.

And we have an opportunity to go and make our state digitally connected. And because of that, when we took a look at the various statutory functions, some of the functions of the broadband functions are in different sections of the statute. And this is an effort to just codify and pull everybody together under the CIO.

When you take a look at other states and where the broadband office is situated, it is with conjunction with our Chief Information Officer because broadband has to go hand in hand with what the state is doing in IT development. So in support, and we'll be available for questions. Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for your leadership on broadband. Moving on to our next testifier, we have DBEDT in person with comments. Thank you. Stand on your testimony. Moving on to... We have the Hawaii State Council on Development Disabilities in support. Thank you. Stand on your testimony. We also have the Hawaii Office of ETS in person in support with comments.

Aloha, Chair, Vice Chair, and Members of the Committee. Christine Maii Sakuda, the Chief Information Officer in the Office of Enterprise Technology Services, which is in the Office of the Department of Accounting and General Services. And we offer comments. We are in strong support of the Connect Kākou initiative under the Governor and Lieutenant Governor.

We believe strongly that everyone in Hawaii should have access to broadband. The comments are really sort of focused around administrative, you know, clarity that we seeking in this transition and consideration of moving different parts of broadband and have been in different places into the Office of Enterprise Technology Services. We want to be successful in our efforts, and so we just offer some comments. Happy to answer any questions. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to our next testifier, we have the University of Hawaii System in support. Thank you. Stand on your testimony. Going to Zoom. We have Sean in support. Proceed.

Aloha. Yes. Thank you for this opportunity to offer some comments. I strongly support this measure. Really appreciate the Lieutenant Governor's leadership. Particularly intrigued by her note that looking across at other functions within the state government, ways to consolidate and make more efficient and effective some of those other functions, particularly would point to the the lack of representation for consumer interests. There's been no participation by the Office of Consumer Advocate.

The DCCA's cable office has been behaving in sort of manner that bears scrutiny, I would say, in terms of consumer interests, in terms of advocating for public interests. The Public Utilities Commission could certainly use support to engage. When you look across at what other states are doing, you'll see a very important alignment of the regulatory regime with the policy regime. The state is making huge investments.

They're not just federal funds, they're state funds. There are ratepayer funds. There's a lot of resources involved here and very little representation for consumers or public interest. So hopefully, as this measure moves forward with Lieutenant Governor's eye on it, we can find ways to improve the state's functions in those areas. Thank you for this opportunity to offer comments.

Thank you. We have four support testimonies on HB 934 and zero in opposition and four comments. Is there any other testifiers who wish to testify in person? Any in Zoom? Okay.

Chair. My name is Kaili Swan. I'm a strong supporters measure because people with disability needs adequate to broadband because some people are not, some people cannot afford it because it cost too much money. So can you please pass this bill, and I'm here for any question you have. Thank you so much to my testimony.

Thank you so much. Is there any others in Zoom? With no testify in person and in Zoom, Committee Members, are there any questions or comments? With no questions and comments, we're going to move on to HB 1442. We have Chamber of Commerce in support. Thank you. Moving on to our overall testimony in support.

We have seven for HB 1442, zero in opposition and two comments. Is there any testifiers in person wishing to testify? Any in zoom? Oh, please proceed.

Aloha members of the Committee. We stand in our stand on our written testimony and comments on HB1442.

Thank you. DBEDT stands on its testimony. Is there any others in zoom? None in Zoom. Committee Members, are there any questions or comments? None. No questions and comments. We'll move on to HB572. Okay, bear with me on this one. We have Department of Taxation with comments in person.

Doesn't look like they're here in person, so let's move on to Zoom. We have the Hawaii Association Professional Nurses in support, not in zoom. We have the Tax Foundation of Hawaii in Zoom.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee, Tom Yamachika for Tax Foundation of Hawaii. Our comments are entirely technical and are contained in the last page of our testimony. I'd be happy to answer any questions.

Thank you. We have the Hawaii Food Industry Association in support in zoom.

Thank you. Chair Lauren Zirbel on behalf of Hawaii Food Industry Association. We represent about 200 food supply chain companies across the state. We're in strong support of this measure to bring Hawaii in line with the rest of the United States in removing this extremely regressive tax on groceries.

As you know, Hawaii is one of the only states that continues to tax groceries, and we have a one in three food insecurity crisis in our state. I hope everyone agrees that is unacceptable and we should do everything in our power to fix this problem.

There are many, many studies cited in my testimony that show that taxing groceries contributes very significantly to food insecurity. This Bill would provide immediate financial relief to residents, reduce food insecurity, improve health health outcomes, align Hawaii's tax policy with the majority of the United States, and stimulate the local economy by increasing consumer spending.

There's a study I referenced from Georgia which shows that removing taxes on groceries spurs an incredible amount of economic growth and is actually a tax generator for the state. So thank you very much for considering this and I'm available for testimony or for questions if you have any.

Thank you. Moving on to University of Hawaii System in support in Zoom. They are not here right now. Moving to in-person. We have the Chamber of Commerce? You stand in your testimony in support. We have 36 testifiers in support. We have one in opposition and two comments.

And for HB572, is there any testifiers in person wishing to speak?

Sorry, I was just downstairs testifying. Harrison with Department of Taxation. If you called earlier.

Yes, I did. No worries.

Department stands on its written testimony, but I'm here for questions.

Glad you're here.

Thank you.

Is there any others? Moving on to Zoom. None in Zoom. Committee Members, are there any comments or questions? Moving on to HB701, we have Department of Taxation in person with comments. Thank you. Stand in your written testimony with comments. We have AARP Hawaii, in person.

Good morning, Chair, Members of the Committee. I'm Audrey Suga-Nakagawa. I'm the advocacy Director for AARP. And AARP stands in strong support of this measure. This Bill will help many of our caregivers who are caring for their loved ones at home. You know, our family caregivers are really the backbone of a long term care system.

And you know, unfortunately the cost of care really can be staggering. Things really add up when you look at prescription drugs, the cost of incontinence supplies, assistive devices that help care for a loved one at home.

We know in our studies that about the average caregiver spends about $7,200 a year in caring for this, in incurring the kind of costs. In 2024, AARP conducted a poll among Hawaii registered voters and 45% of them indicated that they were either current or former caregivers.

And 90% of them said that yes, they were incurring costs and would really appreciate having some type of a caregiver tax credit, credit that would alleviate their financial burden. So we strongly support this measure. And I just want to point out a distinction, because I know that there's another carrier of a tax credit, credit right after this.

The difference between this tax credit and the other one is that this one covers individuals who may not necessarily be working. Many are retired or may have had to have quit their jobs in order to take care of a loved one.

So this particular Bill covers those individuals, and it also expands type of expenses that they could claim. It does provide a provision that they would either have to claim for this one or the one that's coming next, which is the Household Independent Care tax credit.

So I just want to point out that distinction, that the two credit tax credit bills complement each other. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to our next testimony in support Alzheimer's Association Hawaii. They are not here presently. Moving on to Zoom, the Tax foundation of Hawaii.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Tom Yamachika from Tax foundation of Hawaii. We have primarily technical comments, but the one substantive comment that we wanted to highlight was that the Proposed credit is now 100% of qualified expenses.

And when you structure the credit like that, the credit recipient, the taxpayer really has no incentive to shop around for the best deal or best value, because they're not paying for it. So we would recommend that the percentage be reduced a little bit.

So at least the taxpayer has some incentive to shop around and prevent caregivers from charging anything they want. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you for the opportunity.

Thank you. Moving on to our next SFR and Zoom. In support, we have the Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks.

Hi there. Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. I'm Nicole Wu from Hawaii Children's Action Network speaks. Many of the parents that we work with are in the sandwich generation, so they're caring for children and for their parents. And this type of tax credit would certainly help them make ends meet. So we support this Bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving on to our next testifier on zoom. We have the Disability and Communication Access Board in support. All right, we'll go back to that. We have also a zoom testifier. It's Kylie.

I'm here, Chair, Good morning, Chair, Vice Chair, Committee Members. My name is Kylie Swan. I'm a strong supporters measurer because people with disability to pay their taxes to pay their CLSI worker, caregiver, respite worker, because the cost of the taxes more expensive to pay their caregivers and CLSI worker.

It will be possible if you can pass this Bill so we can pay more taxes and pay them so that we don't have to pay our own pocket to pay for them. So can you please pass this measure and thanks testimony. Please let me know if you have any questions you may have. Thank you.

Thank you, Kylie. Moving back to the previous testifier, the Disability and Communication Access Board, they are not here. We have 19 testimony in support for HB 701, and 0 in opposition with two comments. Is there any testifiers in person wishing to testify? Is there any in zoom?

With no further testimony, is there any Committee Members wishing to ask any questions or comments? With no comments and questions, we're moving on to HB 753. Our first testimony is in person, Department of Taxation with comments. Stand on their testimony. We have AARP Hawaii in support. Thank you. Stand on their testimony. We also have Tax Foundation of Hawaii on Zoom, comments.

Thank you, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Tom Yamachika from Tax Foundation of Hawaii. Our comments are, again, primarily technical. We are worried about the formula for allowance of the credit getting more complex. It's definitely a lot more complicated than the table lookup formula than it used to be. So it may give the people that you are targeting with this credit a little bit more of a headache. So we just wanted to be careful about that is our recommendation. I'd be happy to answer any questions. Thank you very much.

Thank you, Tom. Moving on to Zoom again, we have Catholic Charities Hawaii in support.

Good morning, Chair and Vice Chair. I'm Betty Lou Larson from Catholic Charities Hawaii. We support this bill because we feel it's a very important part of the Legislature's effort to really reduce cost of living for our workers and our families in Hawaii. As you know, child care is exploding over $13,000 a year. So many people have to do that in order to work. But this really is a burden. Many people are working two or three jobs, and so it's really a burden and this would really help them. I think it really helps to decide if you're going to move to mainland or not.

I actually have a friend who, years ago, before the cost of living was so high, had a second baby. And the husband worked for UH, she had a nice job in a nonprofit. They decided they couldn't afford to live here, and they moved to the mainland. So it really, I think is an example of how the cost of living, especially childcare, can be so hard for families to bear. It's a burden. So we encourage you to support this bill. Thank you.

Thank you. Moving to the next testifier in Zoom, we have Hawaii Children's Action Network Speaks.

Ahola, Chair, Vice Chair, Members of the Committee. Thanks for hearing this bill. The Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit has been around for many years. It got stuck at a really low level years ago, and it wasn't enough to really provide the kind of support that families with child care or dependent care, if they have an adult family member who needs care during the day, it wasn't enough of a credit to really provide them support. So two years ago, the Legislature and the Governor passed a law to increase the amount that people can get in this tax credit.

It went from $2,400 per dependent to $10,000 per dependent. But there's also a percent cap on this tax credit. Right now, if you make more than $50,000 a year, you can only get back 15% of your care expenses in the credit, 15%. So let's say you have a pre-k bill of $10,000 a year. Right now, you can only get $1,500 of that in the credit because of this percent cap. Our understanding at the end of 2023 session was that it was understood that both of these caps needed to be raised and that this would be fixed in 2024.

But it didn't. It made it like to the end of session and then it didn't pass. So we're really hoping that this year is the year that the second cap, the percent cap, can be raised because we believe that that's sort of what you guys were intending to do when you raised the amount in the first place. So in a way, it's almost just like housekeeping.

I have a table in my testimony that shows the different types of families in Hawaii who would really benefit from this. We already have some good child care subsidies for the very low income families. But when you get to the ALICE families or the sort of middle class families, they don't get those subsidies, and those are the ones who are really struggling to afford child care.

So, you know, I did some calculations to give you a sense of who would be helped. And finally, to address the concern from the Tax Foundation, in general, it is considered now a good tax policy not to have cliffs in the tax code. So in other words, in the past, this tax credit would go down quite a bit when you made like $1 more. Right. And that's not a great way to kind of have people lose a lot of tax credit just because they went up a little bit in their income.

So the new formula is sort of a sliding scale so that the tax credit phases out at a more smooth way as families make more money. That way they don't fall off a cliff at these, you know, big steps. In general, you know, most families are using some sort of software, like a free software which does the calculation automatically. So hopefully, you know, that concern is not as big of an issue as it might have been before people used online and softwares to do their taxes. Thank you very much for hearing my testimony. We support this bill.

Thank you. Moving on to our next testifier, it looks like we have 81 testimony in support, zero in opposition, with two comments. Is there any testifiers in person wishing to testify? Any in Zoom? With no testimony in person and in Zoom, is there any questions and comments from Committee Members?

With no comments and questions Members, we are going to recess for a decision made making. Recess. We are back from recess for decision making and we are at the top of the agenda on HB455.

The chair's recommendation is going to be to adopt DBED's suggested amendment to transfer administrative responsibility from the Hawaii Technology Development Corporation to the community based economic development program. We also want to blank out the appropriation and note it to the Committee notes.

Also, we want to add one blank FTE and this FTE is going to be for the business loan officer within the business support branch. We also want to note into the committee notes that this FTE would be a total of 95,000. We also want to defect the date to July 1st, 3000.

Members, are there any questions or comments regarding the amendment amendments with no questions and comments. Vice Chair, could you please take the vote?

Okay. We're voting on HB455. The recommendation is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair, vote aye. Any. I'm sorry, Representative Holt? Representative Tam.

Aye.

Representative Templo.

Aye.

Representative Todd. Representative Matsumoto. Thank you very much. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to HB437. For HB437, the chair's recommendation is going to be to move this bill out and we have a blank appropriation already in this bill.

We also want to add to the Committee notes a total of 200k for fiscal year 25 and 26 for operating expenses, program expenses, startup costs, including a study as to where best to locate the office. Also, an appropriation of 175k is needed for fiscal year 26-27 on a recurring basis.

We also want to defect the date to July 1st, 3000. Any comments, Members, or questions regarding the amendments?

Vice Chair, please take the vote. HP437 recommendations to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair, vote aye. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservation? Okay. Hearing none. The measure is adopted. The recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to HB650. Chair's recommendation is to move out this measure and we want to amend it to blank out the amount, the appropriation amount and also add that appropriation amount to the committee notes. We also going to defect the date to July 1st, 3000. Any questions or comments, committee Members regarding the amendments?

Vice Chair, please take the vote.

Okay. HB650 recommendations to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair, vote aye. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservations hearing none. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you. Vice Chair for HB935. The chair's recommendation is going to defer this bill and the reason why is there is some redundancy with this program with the public library and there is uncertainty regarding federal funding for securing these digital navigator positions, even though they're very much needed. I'm going to defer this bill at this time.

Moving on to HB934. The chair's recommendation is going to be an HD1. To move this out, we're going to adopt charter suggested amendment on page six, line nine that's supporting broadband projects. It's going to excluding the development of broadband infrastructure for provision of retail service.

We're also going to blank out the appropriation and add that to the committee notes. We're going to defect the date to July 1st, 3000 and any technical amendments needed for clarity, consistency and style. Any questions regarding or comments regarding the amendments? Committee Members? With no questions or comments Vice Chair, could you please take the vote?

HP934 recommendations to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair, vote aye. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservations hearing none. Chair, recommendations adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to HB1442. The chair's recommendation is going to be HD1 to move this Bill out. And there's going to. There's going to be a. We're going to defect a date to July 1st, 3000. There's also going to be some technical amendments needed for clarity, consistency and style.

And the bill also contains a blank appropriation amount. Is there any questions or comments regarding the amendments? Committee Members? Vice Chair with no comments and questions. Vice Chair, could you please take the vote?

Okay. The recommendation for 1442 is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair, vote aye. Any votes with opposition in opposition. Any votes with reservations? Chair, your recommendations adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to HB572. Chair's recommendation is going to be an HD one and there are going to be some technical amendments needed for clarity, consistency and style. We're also going to defect the date to July 1st, 3000. Is there any questions regarding the amendments with no questions and comments.

Vice Chair, could you please take the vote?

Recommendation for HP 572 is to pass with amendments. Chair and Vice Chair, vote aye. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservation? Okay. Chair, your recommendation is adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Members, bear with me on this one. HB701, we have HD1. We're going to move this out. There are many amendments we're going to make to clean up this bill and make sure that it's ready for finance. We're going to amend to add the family caregiver tax credit is going to be non-refundable.

We're going to also amend on page three, line 19 to add the Director of Taxation Consultation with the Executive Office on Aging. We're also going to add on page four, line three that provides that the Executive Office on Aging shall certify the claim for the tax credit.

We're also going to add a section 3 that there shall be a blank appropriation for fiscal year 25-26 and fiscal year 26-27 for certification of care recipient services eligible for the tax credit. We're also going to add to the committee notes a total of 750,000 for consideration and finance.

On Section 5, we're going to add that shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31st, 2025. The bill contains a defective effective date and that's the amendments that the Chair is recommending. Is there any questions or comments, Committee Members, regarding the amendments? No comment. With no comments and questions. Vice Chair, could you please take the vote?

HB701, so the recommendation is to pass an HD2. Chair and Vice Chair. Vote aye. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservation? Okay. Hearing none. Chair, your recommendations adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. Moving on to our last bill, HB 753 is going to be as is. There is already a defective effective date. Any questions or comments, Committee Members? No questions and comments, Vice Chair. Please take the vote.

Okay, we're passing HP753HD1 as is. Chair and Vice Chair, vote aye. Any votes in opposition? Any votes with reservations? Chair, your recommendations adopted.

Thank you, Vice Chair. And thank you Committee Members and all those who testified. Our Committee is now adjourned.