• Ohana Kaua‘i amendment Ohana Kaua‘i amendment By Walter Lewis On the November 2, 2004 General Election Ballot a Charter amendment is proposed to reduce property taxes for County residents. It is in the best interests of the citizens of
• Ohana Kaua‘i amendment
Ohana Kaua‘i amendment
By Walter Lewis
On the November 2, 2004 General Election Ballot a Charter amendment is proposed to reduce property taxes for County residents. It is in the best interests of the citizens of Kauai and you are urged to Vote “yes” on the measure for the following reasons:
First, over the past six years the spending by the County has increased by over 50%. This has been financed by a comparable increase in real property taxes. The administration of Kaua‘i’s real property taxes has been dysfunctional and, although all properties are by law to be assessed at 100% of value, in practice assessments have averaged only about 70% and variations of assessments for properties of comparable value have been rampant and chaotic. Many homeowners have suffered tax increases of over 100%. Increases of this magnitude have threatened the ability of some to retain their homes. Taxpayers are entitled to relief from these arbitrary and burdensome tax practices. The proposed Charter amendment will restore property taxes for resident homeowners to the amounts paid in the 1998-1999 year or the year of acquisition of the property, whichever is later.
Second, citizens of Kauai who purchase their homes have budgets for their mortgages and other expenses of home ownership such as property taxes and are entitled to have stability in such costs. Huge tax increases for reasons outside the control of the taxpayers are unwarranted. The proposed Charter amendment will give them assurance that property taxes will not be allowed to rise at more than 2% per year.
The reasons offered in the September 26th TGI article by JoAnn Yukimura and endorsed by Maurice Munechika in opposition to the Charter amendment are in each case flawed and unjustified.
They say the word “resident” is undefined in the Charter amendment resulting in unintended increased financial impacts. However, that word has a clear meaning in the Kaua‘i property tax law. In addition, the proposed amendment instructs the County to adopt such laws and rules as are necessary to interpret and carry out the purposes of the proposal and eliminate any uncertainty. The Charter amendment clearly provides it benefits only properties owned and occupied by County residents. This cannot reasonably and would not be misconstrued. They are nit-picking.
They say the Charter amendment will have a negative impact on County income and services. Taxes will be reduced for resident homeowner and also county revenues by the same amount, but these reductions are far less than the irresponsible amounts they mentioned which rely on unjustified assumptions. The County has ample means to generate replacement revenues for the actual impact. If the County were to vote tax increases for vacation rental properties as has been proposed none of the increases for other taxpayers mentioned by them would be necessary. They threaten irresponsibly that the amendment would mean that government services would have to be curtailed. But they recently enacted exemptions, and circuit breaker and home use cap ordinances resulting in larger revenue losses than the Charter amendment would without expressing any concern about the revenue effect. But when they talk about the Charter amendment they resort to scaremongering. They really oppose the Ohana measure because they did not initiate it. If, as they claim farmers and small businesses are overtaxed, the Council should act to allocate tax burdens more fairly, but they prefer to do nothing and blame others. Our resident homeowners are really the ones who have suffered unfair taxation.
They Say that the County bond ratings would be adversely affected by the Charter amendment. We called the two leading municipal bond rating services and were advised the Charter amendment would have no effect on the County bond ratings and, assuming the County acted in a rational manner to obtain necessary revenues, any effect on interest costs would be nil or very limited. The letter accompanying their statement was from a banker seeking County business not an independent bonding agency. The letter was defective in several respects because it was based on inaccurate information.
They say it is a bad idea to establish a property tax system by Charter amendment ignoring that the proposed amendment only affects one class of taxpayers and is not a property tax system. They also fail to tell you that the amendment prevents Council tinkering with it and affecting the benefits it affords without voter approval. The Ohana measure is proposed as a Charter amendment because the County Council gave no indication they would support it or even when they would consider it. The Ohana group believed that our resident homeowners should have early relief from their soaring tax burdens and it could only be assured by a Charter amendment
They say the Council has enacted “fairly” effective interim tax relief and is working on long term relief. We recognize that, influenced by our proposed Charter amendment, the Council adopted two measures that afford limited tax benefits for homeowners. They claim that the impact of the Charter amendment will be $3 million per year, but that amount assumes the repeal of the two measures They proudly proclaim they are improving.
With those measures intact, the impact of the Ohana proposal is a minor fraction of the amount claimed. They referred to the property tax task force recommendation as the long term tax relief the Council is “working on.” It is only a proposal. If and when enacted, it offers tax reforms but not tax relief.
For all of the above reasons we urge all citizens who are or who may become homeowners to vote “yes” on the Charter amendment as the only way to assure that our residents will obtain and continue to have relief from oppressive real property taxation.
Walter Lewis is a resident of Princeville.
