It’s tough work getting a bill through the Legislature. Of the nearly 3,000 bills introduced in the 2017 Legislature, only about 220 made it to the governor’s desk.
One measure that didn’t make it was House Bill Opens in a new tab1012 Opens in a new tab, which would have eliminated a corporate tax deduction for real estate investment trusts (REITs).
The bill actually passed the House on a 47-3 vote. However, it failed in the Senate — but not after full consideration. It was blocked by state Sen. Roz Baker, chairwoman of the Commerce, Consumer Protection and Health Committee, who declined to consider it.
It’s not unusual for a committee chairperson to stop bills by withholding them. There are lots of good reasons: the bill could be duplicative, or badly written, or without support from legislators or the public.
None of those reasons apply to HB 1012 or its companion, Senate Bill Opens in a new tab1228 Opens in a new tab.
Rather, Baker offered a weak substitute: “It didn’t seem to be an important issue,” she told the Star-Advertiser’s Kevin Dayton in a terse email.
Really?
HB 1012 was the latest effort, going back to 2014, to clamp down on a corporate tax deduction that has cost the state millions of dollars in tax revenue — $36 million in 2014, according to a September 2016 study ordered by the Legislature, which apparently did think it was an important issue.
REITs were created by Congress in 1960 as a way to allow individuals to invest in large-scale, income-producing real estate companies without owning the property itself. REITs, however, include a controversial feature — the dividend paid deduction (DPD).
In nearly every state except New Hampshire, REITs generally do not pay a state corporate income tax. Instead, they distribute nearly all of their income to shareholders, who pay the tax on those dividends wherever they live.
This issue deserves a full airing in the Legislature for several reasons:
First, REITs own some of the biggest and highest-profile properties in Hawaii.
They own Ala Moana Center, the Hilton Hawaiian Village Waikiki Beach Resort, the Wet ’n’ Wild Hawaii water park in Kapolei, and downtown properties like Harbor Court. Alexander & Baldwin, a longtime kamaaina company that owns shopping centers statewide, decided in July to convert to a REIT.
Second, by the state’s estimate, only between 0.5 and 3 percent of local taxpayers invest in REITs with properties in Hawaii — so it’s reasonable to conclude that the tax revenue is being collected elsewhere. As a result, Hawaii taxpayers “essentially subsidize the costs of the infrastructure and government services that support properties owned by these trusts,” as HB 1012 puts it.
Third, there’s the issue of fairness. Why should REITs be allowed to avoid a tax that differently structured companies must pay? That’s a view held by local developers such as Peter Savio and Michael Fergus, who have lobbied for elimination of the tax deduction.
Finally, there is Baker herself. She has received more than $16,700 in campaign contributions since 2007 from lobbyists for REITs, and from A&B executives, according to state Campaign Spending Commission records. Is that one reason she blocked the bill?
“Your questions make lots of very negative and inaccurate assumptions,” she emailed Dayton, who raised that question, among others. Perhaps those “assumptions” would go away if she allowed the issue of REITs to get a full airing.
REIT industry representatives argue that REITs generate thousands of construction jobs and tens of millions of dollars in tax revenue for Hawaii, including general excise taxes, property taxes and hotel room taxes. Without the deduction, they claim, REIT investments may shrink, reducing those revenues for the state.
Well, maybe. Or maybe not. Look around. Hawaii is an extremely desirable location, and real estate development is booming. Is all this happening because of the REIT tax deduction? It seems unlikely.
In any case, the issue is ripe for full public debate. The 2018 Legislature, both House and Senate, should take it up — and Baker should not stand in the way.
