• Lagoons’ housing program meets county conditions • Property taxes and vacation rentals are related • Secondary students should ‘opt out Lagoons’ housing program meets county conditions We would like to add clarification to John Patterson’s letter of July 29
• Lagoons’ housing program meets county conditions
• Property taxes and vacation rentals are related
• Secondary students should ‘opt out
Lagoons’ housing program meets county conditions
We would like to add clarification to John Patterson’s letter of July 29 regarding the affordable housing program at Kauai Lagoons.
First and foremost, the affordable housing program is designed to help accommodate Kaua‘i’s working families. Under the agreement with the County of Kaua‘i, the developer of Kauai Lagoons will provide a total of 113 affordable homes. Eighty-two of these are rental units at Waipouli and 31 are leasehold ownership units to be built at the resort.
Employees of the resort have no priority on the 82 affordable housing units for rent in Waipouli, but do have priority on the leasehold units at the resort. This is a “smart growth” initiative to locate employees closer to their place of work, which reduces commute time and traffic.
Contrary to Mr. Patterson’s comment, none of these affordable homes will accommodate anyone, resort employee or otherwise, who does not meet the terms and conditions specified and enforced by the Kauai County Housing Agency. This includes verifying that income is within the qualifying limits and that the applicant does not own any other real estate.
Brad Snyder
General Manager, Kauai Lagoons
Property taxes and vacation rentals are related
I moved to this beautiful island to live in December 2004. My property taxes at that time were assessed at $208,900 for the land and $208,300 for the building. Total assessed value of $417,200, which was $2084.22 a year for my property taxes.
This year, 2007, my property taxes were assessed at $1,416,300. The building was $327,700 and land was $1,088,600. I would like to know how they know what my building is worth now? Have they been inside or outside? Do they know if I have kept up with maintenance on my home? It could be termite-ridden, plumbing not working, etc. and left to rot. I guess they assume that I have put more into it and have maintained it. However, this represents almost a million-dollar assessed increase in three years. My tax bill now is $5,545.50 a year. Let me break this down for you. I used to pay $173 a month and now I have to pay $462 in property taxes a month. It has more than doubled in three years. In fact, that is more than a 160percent increase. !
I don’t know who on the island gets that kind of raise in their salaries to be able to afford these outrageous increases the county assessor has been implementing in the last couple of years. (Well, maybe the county assessor for doing such a great job for the county). What can a person do about this? Where does this extra money come from? What do I have to give up to pay this extra $289 a month?
You go to tax board for a review and you are shot down with all sorts of documentation on sales in the area. Do they take into account these off-island buyers that are buying up choice land for vacation rentals or second homes? That is exactly what happened next door to me. Some person bought the house, doesn’t live here and uses it as a vacation rental. When he bought it at the peak, he had plans to build an ADU almost exactly the same size of the existing house, thus bringing in two incomes from one property investment. He thought he was buying a cash cow.
Wrong! Our close neighborhood certainly didn’t want this to happen. We didn’t want our small residential neighborhood to be turned into a business for off-island homeowners. Did the county assessor know all this when they seemed fit to raise our taxes because this person bought at an inflated price for this reason? NO. There has been little upkeep since the purchase. In today’s market he would probably lose 400K for the house in its current condition. But because of this sale at a highly inflated price, the tax assessor has now increased my house and probably others in my neighborhood.
It’s been happening all over the island. Is the county assessor going to go back now and start reassessing properties when they start selling for less? Of course not! My friend bought her house for a dear price and had to walk away from the house because she couldn’t even manage to sell it for the mortgage price. Is the county assessor going to reduce the homes in her area now to reflect current trends of lower sale prices?
Again, what is a homeowner to do to keep up with these inflated increases? Why of course, I will turn my house into a vacation rental in order to pay the taxes! The local population won’t be able to afford it and who cares if they disturb my neighbors with their loud happy vacation partying. They are having fun. Or wait, I can also start renting my ‘Ohana house for cash. HELLO, County, do you see what you are doing to our neighborhoods and people? People need to make up the difference somewhere and it’s not coming from their paychecks. I guarantee it. They are going to have to resort to illegal ways to make up these unbelievable increases. Or maybe leave the island, or buy a cheaper home if they can afford to do this.
In California, they can only adjust your property taxes (I believe) 1percent per year. Thanks to Prop 13. (Okay, I don’t want to hear all you letter writers about the woes of Prop 13). Bottom line, it made it so we can afford to stay in our homes. My 70-year-old parents pay $4,200 a year in property taxes in a home they have lived in for 40 years. The house is probably worth $2 million now. They certainly wouldn’t be able to afford to buy it now or even pay the new property taxes. But at least they can stay in their home and afford it. Any new home buyer pays a percentage of the sale price as new property taxes.
So, I would like to know how the county thinks the homeowners are going to pay for these increases. Do they really think this is a fair percentage of increase for families or a single person to pay. I would love to hear from some county council members on this. Regardless of what a home is worth now compared to when they bought it. The county should be fair in the increases. A law should to be written to halt such dramatic assessment increases. Fellow homeowners, we must do something. I will join any group that helps this cause.
Are you listening, Kaua‘i County Council?
Carrie Lavigne
Kapa‘a
Secondary students should ‘opt out’
The Department of Education should readily make available on the first day of school the Non-Disclosure of Directory Information or “Opt Out” form to every secondary school student.
Under the federal No Child Left Behind Act, public schools that receive federal funding are mandated to provide military recruiters the names, addresses and phone numbers of secondary public school students upon their request, unless we, as parents, legal guardians or eligible students (18 years old) check off that this information not be released to the military without our prior written consent.
The recruiters will try their best to hoodwink our children with grand stories of valor and how they will receive thousands of dollars for a college education. They fail to tell them that if sent to Iraq they may return home without a limb or possibly in a flag-draped coffin.
They also fail to mention how they will be forced to fight a people who want us out of their country immediately. If any secondary student has not yet brought a form home, call or write the school and have them send it to you, or if you can, go down and get one.
From my own experience, the office staffs at all our secondary public schools are very helpful and will do their best to assist you. We, as parents, owe this to our children. Our youth should not be used as cannon fodder for Big Oil.
Raymond Catania
Kapa‘a
