Tom Yamachika says, “if all the bonds were to be issued at once… the principal and interest payments would likely range from $150 million to $180 million annually.”  Bingo!  How much is the Governor requesting in his budget for housing this year? $182.4 million.  Take out the odds and ends and it’s $150 million.  We’re already spending the money, but we’re doing it on a short-sighted pay-as-you-go basis.  If we borrow the money today at really low interest and use it to leverage the private sector by providing gap financing, we’ll get twice as many units, twice as much bang for the buck, without having to pay a penny more in taxes.  $98,000 is the top end of what the federal Department of Housing & Urban Development thinks needs help to find housing in HI – someone making 140% of the Area Median Income, someone like a university professor.  But HUD expects a range of housing responses with much greater subsidies including for people at the 30% AMI mark which is just $21,000 a year.