Letters to the Editor for Saturday — March 13, 2004

• Thanks for property-tax reform

• Tobacco-free

Thanks for property-tax reform

I would like to commend everyone who is working to reform our property tax.

I am collecting signatures to get the proposed charter amendment to freeze and/or roll back property taxes, for resident homeowners, on the ballot so that it will be an option for the voters of Kaua‘i to decide upon in November 2004.

Several months ago I was like many others, complaining about property taxes and doing nothing about it.

I knew that our well-intentioned elected and appointed officials were debating and considering this matter, however I also knew that no matter how well-intentioned our officials are or how vigorous the debate, many times that is all that we end up with (good intentions and debate).

When I became aware of the proposed charter amendment to freeze taxes for resident homeowners of Kaua‘i, I decided that I would stop being a complainer and do something about tax reform in Kaua‘i, just like someone else did for my mother in the early ‘70s.

My mother lived in a house in Southern California that her grandmother built. Her income wasn’t much, but she could manage the $500 annual property taxes.

Then one year she was informed that her property taxes would be raised to $4,000 due to the escalating values of Southern California real estate. I don’t remember if there were any “task forces” or other relief efforts proposed at the time, but I do know that a private citizen by the name of Howard Jarvis came forward and virtually saved my mother’s home.

I have met many persons whose families have lived on Kaua‘i for generations who have related how they and their relatives could not afford their property-tax increases.

The charter amendment addresses only one of the property-tax issues that requires attention — freezing and/or rolling back taxes for resident homeowners.

If this amendment were to pass it would still leave many issues needing tax reform.

That is why our task force and government officials are so very necessary and should be supported as they continue to seek solutions to issues not covered by the proposed charter amendment (ie. low income, first-time buyers, renters, etc.).

By signing the charter amendment petition and voting for it in the upcoming election, we will no longer be standing by, hoping that meaningful tax reform that protects all resident home owners will be enacted. What we will be doing is enacting real tax reform that will (without any ifs, ands or buts) definitely take effect immediately after passage.

I feel that the fact that a citizens’ initiative is being circulated to take this particular issue out of the hands of our worthy officials and directly into the hands of the voting public is encouraging our officials to work even harder to actually achieve the necessary tax reforms that we the citizens entrust to their noble efforts.

John Wooten

Anahola

Tobacco-free

Tobacco-Free Kauai would like to thank the House Committee on Finance for ensuring that tobacco trust fund dollars continue to be allocated for what they are meant to do: keeping our communities tobacco-free.

We owe a special thanks to committee Chair Rep. Dwight Takamine for his leadership in this matter, as well as to Kaua‘i’s Rep. Bertha Kawakami, the vice chair.

HB2843 HD1, relating to crystal methamphetamine, would have cut the current 12.5 percent allocated to tobacco prevention and cessation programs to 6.25 percent.

In Hawai‘i, 1,100 people die each year from the effects of tobacco use, including heart disease, stroke, and numerous cancers.

Another 100 non-smokers die from the effects of second-hand smoke! Tobacco is the leading preventable cause of death on Kaua‘i. Tobacco kills more people than AIDS, suicides, murders, fires, illicit drugs (including ice), motor vehicle accidents and alcohol — combined.

One in four teenagers in Hawai‘i smoke. There are over 60,000 students in Hawai‘i’s schools today who will become addicted to tobacco. Over 23,000 of them will die as a result of a decision (to smoke) that they made as children.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, to effectively reduce smoking rates, Hawai‘i needs to spend between $11 million and $23 million a year. For 2004, less than $9 million is allocated to such efforts. Tobacco companies spend nearly $49 million on marketing their products to youth and adults in Hawai‘i. We must at least maintain, if not restore, the tobacco-fund allocations in order to counter tobacco-industry tactics and tobacco’s burden on our state.

Tobacco-Free Kauai provides much-needed technical assistance and capacity building in youth prevention, youth and adult cessation, advocacy to reduce the effects of second-hand smoke, and to address the disparities in populations at risk for tobacco addiction.

This creates local and culturally sensitive tobacco prevention and cessation resources to those people who want to quit.

Our programs also call for promoting a network of skilled cessation specialists, so that people who want to quit know what resources are available to them. We also work in the schools (over 25 percent of our students are smoking) and with health-care providers to help people become free of their nicotine habit.

We provide programs to help pregnant smokers and their families to quit. Smoking while pregnant causes low-birth-weight babies, miscarriage, and learning disabilities. Exposure to second-hand smoke is a cause of sudden infant death syndrome, increased risk of inner ear infections, and asthma among children.

We also provide specialized programs to address disparities among Native Hawaiian and Filipino smokers. Over 56 percent of Kaua‘i’s Native Hawaiian population is addicted to nicotine!

John Hunt, Chairman

Anahola