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Councilman Aaron Chung, Chair & FiUG ~s FI(~ ~ CO <br /> <br /> Members of the Finance Committee <br /> Hawaii County Council i <br /> County of Hawaii <br /> RE: Bill No.49 <br /> I'm here this morning representing my Chapter, the Hamakua <br /> County Farm Bureau to testify in support of Bill No. 49 relating to <br /> real property tax on agricultural lands. <br /> Allow me first to thank Chairman Chung and the Finance <br /> Committee for making the time to consider the need to correct <br /> flaws in the County's real property tax code. These flaws are <br /> resulting in the erosion of our most productive agricultural lands <br /> for non ag uses or questionable ag uses and allowing the very rich <br /> to manipulate the County's current liberal ag tax laws to further <br /> enrich themselves by not carrying their fair share of the tax burden. <br /> All one has to do is look at what's happening to C. Brewers <br /> land along the Hilo Coast. Look at who is buying these prime ag <br /> lands. Farmers? Farmers couldn't afford the price Brewer is <br /> asking for their land. Look at Waimea where the price of farm <br /> land is so ridiculously high that farmers are selling their family <br /> farms because buyers are tripping over themselves with lucrative <br /> offers that a farmer can never hope to earn from farming during his <br /> lifetime. So who are these buyers? We suspect that they include <br /> speculators who plan to land bank their holdings with short-term <br /> leases to the immigrant farmers who cannot afford to buy good <br /> farmland. Then when the opportunities arise they will sell for a <br /> nice profit or have the land rezoned to smaller parcels of three to <br /> five acres and thereby setting the stage for the development of <br /> gated communities of "gentlemen farmers". All under the guise of <br /> making land more affordable for farming. q <br /> Comm. No. ~ •8 <br /> Ref. To:~y~ <br /> Ref. Uate./1UU <br /> <br />