Bill Text: HI SB3038 | 2020 | Regular Session | Introduced
Bill Title: Relating To Taro.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 6-0)
Status: (Engrossed - Dead) 2020-03-16 - This measure has been deleted from the meeting scheduled on Wednesday 03-18-20 8:35AM in conference room 312. [SB3038 Detail]
Download: Hawaii-2020-SB3038-Introduced.html
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THE SENATE |
S.B. NO. |
3038 |
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THIRTIETH LEGISLATURE, 2020 |
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STATE OF HAWAII |
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A BILL FOR AN ACT
relating to taro.
BE IT
ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF HAWAII:
SECTION 1. The legislature finds that Hawaii imports eighty-five per cent of its food and is considered highly vulnerable in issues of food security as a State. Climate change significantly increases this vulnerability with sea level rise and intensified weather patterns in the Pacific, such as droughts, hurricanes, and floods. In 2016, at the International Union of Conservation of Nature World Conservation Congress, as part of Hawaii's commitments to the world and the state, and in order to begin to address this import inequity, the governor pledged to double food production in Hawaii by 2030.
Small farms on ten acres or less in Hawaii produce a significant portion of our locally grown, locally consumed food on each island. The small farm sector of agriculture is growing, yet, the 2017 census of agriculture reports the average small-scale farmer in Hawaii makes less than $40,000 per year, with losses of almost $10,000 annually due to the high costs of farming, including land and water. To accomplish the State's 2030 goal for local food production, there is an urgent need to better support small farmers, including through economic incentives.
The legislature finds that the department of agriculture has pointed out that the State is most at risk for staple starches. Taro is a hypoallergenic complex carbohydrate that plays a critical role in the health of the family, particularly Native Hawaiians. Yet, the cost of poi remains inaccessible to families most in need of this important staple starch food.
Taro is one of Hawaii's highest yielding staple starch food crops, producing ten thousand and twenty thousand pounds per acre per annum under wet and dry cultivation, respectively; however, taro is severely underproduced in the State. The 2017 census of agriculture reported two hundred seven farms and four hundred ninety-five acres of taro in wetland and dryland production. An estimated two hundred to three hundred additional acres are unreported or in subsistence taro cultivation. Annual reported production averages four million tons; however, taro imports are estimated to exceed local production in 2019.
Loi kalo, or wetland taro systems, are also recognized for their potential to mitigate other impacts of climate change by functioning as riparian buffers and soil capture basins. Underground foods, such as taro, can often survive hurricane or flood events and be harvested to address immediate food shortages where the capacity to store and cook food can be retained.
The legislature also finds that the taro security and purity task force report to the 2010 legislature recommended a number of supports to make taro farming affordable, including access to land, water, mentoring, and economic incentives. Maui and Kauai counties have enacted ordinances that exempt kuleana lands in active taro production from county taxes. This provides limited relief to some taro farms, but does not cover all counties and is insufficient in encouraging young farmers to offset typically low incomes experienced by taro growers or competition from imports.
In 1901, the very first legislature of the Territory of Hawaii recognized the role that taro played in feeding the nation by passing S.B. No. 87 to encourage the cultivation of taro by exempting taro and the cultivation of taro from all state taxes. While S.B. No. 87 was never signed into law, its intentions were clear in encouraging the production of more taro.
In recognition of the critical importance of protecting and perpetuating the traditional practice of taro farming as part of Hawaii's cultural identity and its role in local food security, there is a compelling interest in enacting a similar law in present day. Additionally, an acreage and income cap is a more effective threshold than a timeframe for a proposed tax exemption where one of the goals is to increase overall local taro production.
The purpose of this Act is to create stronger economic incentives for new taro farmers, improve the livelihoods of existing taro farmers, and reduce the cost of poi for local families by exempting taro production from state income taxes.
SECTION 2. Section 235-9, Hawaii Revised Statutes, is amended to read as follows:
"§235-9 Exemptions; generally. Except as provided in sections 235-61 to
235-67 relating to withholding and collection of tax at source, and section
235-2.4 relating to "unrelated business taxable income", the
following persons and organizations shall not be taxable under this
chapter: banks, building and loan
associations, financial services loan companies, financial corporations, small
business investment companies, trust companies, mortgage loan companies,
financial holding companies, subsidiaries of financial holding companies as
defined in chapter 241, and development companies taxable under chapter 241;
insurance companies, agricultural cooperative associations, and fish marketing
associations exclusively taxable under other laws; [and] persons engaged
in the business of motion picture and television film production as defined by
the director of taxation[.]; and persons engaged in the business of taro
production.
As it relates to persons engaged in
the business of taro production, the following shall not be taxable under this chapter:
(1) Taro plants, taro
corm, leaf, and huli for taro farms or portions of farms dedicated to taro plants,
taro corm, leaf, and huli;
(2) Taro lands planted
with taro, inclusive of fallow rotation lands specifically for taro production of
less than or equal acreage to lands in active taro production by each individual
grower; and
(3) All mills, machinery,
appliances, tools, and buildings used exclusively in the care, cultivation, and
preparations of taro and poi for market;
provided that up to the first $100,000 of gross income per individual, farm, or poi mill shall not be taxable under this chapter; provided further that persons engaged in the business of taro production shall be taxable under this chapter when the total amount of land for locally grown taro in the State surpasses thirty thousand acres, as determined by the department of land and natural resources."
SECTION 3. Statutory material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New statutory material is underscored.
SECTION 4. This Act, upon its approval, shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2019.
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INTRODUCED BY: |
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Report Title:
Taro Production; Taxation; Exemptions
Description:
Exempts taro production from the state income tax.
The summary description
of legislation appearing on this page is for informational purposes only and is
not legislation or evidence of legislative intent.
