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H.C.R. 3 Enrolled

                 

RESOLUTION ON AFFORDABLE HOUSING

                 
2000 GENERAL SESSION

                 
STATE OF UTAH

                 
Sponsor: Afton B. Bradshaw

                  A CONCURRENT RESOLUTION OF THE LEGISLATURE AND THE GOVERNOR
                  EXPRESSING SUPPORT FOR INCREASING THE AMOUNT OF THE PRIVATE ACTIVITY
                  BOND CAP AND LOW-INCOME HOUSING CREDITS ALLOCATED TO UTAH BY THE
                  UNITED STATES CONGRESS AND TO INDEX INCREASES TO INFLATION IN FUTURE
                  YEARS.
                  Be it resolved by the Legislature of the state of Utah, the Governor concurring therein:
                      WHEREAS, the policy of the state of Utah is to assure the health, safety, and welfare of
                  its citizens;
                      WHEREAS, an adequate supply of tax-exempt private activity bond volume cap is essential
                  in financing affordable, decent first-time home ownership opportunities in Utah and throughout the
                  nation;
                      WHEREAS, an adequate supply of low-income housing tax credits is critical to financing
                  affordable, decent rental housing units that contribute to the well being of the citizens of the state;
                      WHEREAS, the United States Congress, in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, established
                  restrictions on tax-exempt private activity municipal bonds effective January 1, 1988 that imposed
                  a limit, based on each state's population, not to exceed the greater of $50 per capita or
                  $150,000,000 per calendar year, but failed to include an automatic inflationary multiplier to ensure
                  that the purchasing power of this resource did not become diluted;
                      WHEREAS, because of Utah's relatively small population, the amount of tax-exempt
                  private activity bonding for the state has been limited to $150,000,000 each calendar year, an
                  inadequate amount to meet the tax-exempt private activity financing demands of the state of Utah
                  and its agencies and political subdivisions;
                      WHEREAS, the United States Congress, in the Tax Reform Act of 1986, established
                  restrictions on the low-income housing tax credit that imposed a limit based on each state's
                  population to be equal to $1.25 per capita per calendar year, but failed to include an automatic
                  inflationary multiplier to ensure that the purchasing power of this resource did not become diluted;


                      WHEREAS, since 1987 the effects of annual inflation have diluted the purchasing power of
                  Utah's tax-exempt private activity bonding cap and the low-income housing tax credits by 50.2%,
                  thereby reducing the real purchasing value of Utah's share of this bonding resource from
                  $150,000,000 in 1987 to only $74,000,000 and reducing the real purchasing value of Utah's share of
                  annual per capita amounts of the low-income housing tax credit resource from $1.25 per capita in
                  1987 to $0.62 per capita in 1999;
                      WHEREAS, losing $75,300,000 in the real value of tax-exempt private activity bonding
                  resource along with $0.63 of annual per capita credits from the low-income housing tax credit
                  resource has been devastating to the ability of this state and the nation to provide adequate affordable
                  housing opportunities to its lower income constituents by reducing nearly in half the number of
                  single-family housing units and multifamily housing units available and affordable to the
                  ever-increasing number of lower-income, first-time home buyers and renters in Utah and caused many
                  of these families to remain in substandard housing; and
                      WHEREAS, if the state and its agencies and political subdivisions continue to be unable to
                  provide adequate levels of tax-exempt private activity bond financing and low-income housing tax
                  credit financing for these purposes, the health, safety, and welfare of the citizens of the state will be
                  further negatively impacted:
                      NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of the state of Utah, the
                  Governor concurring therein, urge the United States Congress to immediately increase the tax-exempt
                  private activity volume cap and the allocation of low-income housing tax credits available to Utah to
                  levels that would fully restore the tax-exempt private activity bond volume cap purchasing power and
                  the low-income housing tax credit purchasing power of the states to levels that would offset the
                  diluted effects of inflation since 1987, and to index increases for these resources to inflation in future
                  years.
                      BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the leadership of the
                  majority and minority parties of the United States Congress and the members of Utah's congressional
                  delegation.

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