• Ohana Kauai Ohana Kauai The Ohana Kauai charter amendment should be passed as a first step toward an equitable long term solution to our mounting property tax crisis. I originally had reservations about the amendment because it does not
• Ohana Kauai
Ohana Kauai
The Ohana Kauai charter amendment should be passed as a first step toward an equitable long term solution to our mounting property tax crisis. I originally had reservations about the amendment because it does not go far enough. I would much prefer that it be more like California’s Proposition 13, which slowed the growth of taxes for all property owners, not just one group. The Ohana Kauai amendment protects resident homeowners but not renters, businesses, unoccupied farm land, etc.
I decided to vote for the Ohana Kauai amendment when I realized there is nothing in it which will prevent the Mayor and County Council from following through with equitable long term solutions for all of Kaua‘i’s property owners. There is no reason the County’s Real Property Task Force’s recommendations need be shelved if the Ohana Kauai amendment passes.
Rather, passage of the Ohana Kauai amendment should add a sense of urgency for completion of property tax reform. While we protect current resident homeowners from being taxed out, we need to devise similar protections for all other property owners. If other property taxes are allowed to continue to balloon, renters will suffer, businesses will suffer (and pass on their costs to customers), and pressures to develop vacant ag land will continue.
Taken by itself, the Ohana Kauai amendment will cause a small reduction in the County’s property tax revenues because of the rollback provisions. In the longer run, all it does is slow down the rate of growth of property taxes for resident homeowners. The County’s resident homeowner tax base will continue to grow. New homes will continue to be built and taxed at current rates. Taxes on existing homes will go up in steps when current owners die or sell.
John A. Love
Kapa‘a
