COM 0118.029 2002-2004 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Honorable Aaron S.Y. Chung, Chair, and Members Finance Committee September 3Q 2004 Page 2 • Provides that an owner or recorded lessee may petition to dedicate land for specific commercial agricultural use for 10 years or the unexpired term of the lease if a minimum of 5 years remain. Home sites, setbacks, and open landscape associated with residential use [orj planted with crops primarily for home use would be excluded from the area dedicated for commercial agricultural use. Land not so dedicated would be assessed at market value. The minimum lot size for feed crops, pasture, and fast and slow rotation forestry would be provided by administrative rule [current]y10 acres]. • Eliminates the 20-year dedication period with assessment at 50 percent of productivity value, although the 10-year dedication period remains. Lands under existing 20-year dedication may continue to be assessed at 50 percent of agricultural use value, subject to the conditions and provisions of commercial agricultural use dedication. • Reduces the rollback tax look-back period for breach of agricultural use to 2 years plus current year, scaled up to 5 years for dedicated lands, depending on how long the dedication has been in effect [if less than 8 years]. The period of breach reduced from 12 to 6 consecutive months, unless non-use is part of an approved farm plan. Coincidently, the City and County of Honolulu is also reviewing the agricultural real property tax system for Oahu. They created a Task Force to prepare a "workable" agricultural real property tax system. The members of the Task Force were: 1. Chair Yukio Kitagwa, former Director of the Department of Agriculture; 2. Vice Chair Calvin Lum, former State Veterinarian and current rancher; 3. Dean Okimoto, President Nalo Farms; 4. Lowell Kalapa, Director of the Tax Foundation of Hawaii; 5. James Nakatani, former Director of the Department of Agriculture; 6. Kapu Smith, Kamehameha Schools and Manager of the Kawailoa Plantation; 7. Amy Hirano, Private Consultant; 8. Alternate: Alec Sou, President Aloun Farms; 9. Alternate: Jeff Peterson, Land-O-Lakes. The Task Force's proposed Agricultural Rea] Property Tax bill was approved by the City Council of Honolulu and is now before Mayor Harris for his signature. A copy of the bill (Bill No. 49 (2004) CD 1 FD2) is provided with this testimony. There are a lot of similarities between what the Task Force came up with and what the County of Hawaii is considering under its Bill No. 49. The Task Force bill provided for: (I) One-year dedication at five percent, five-year dedication at three percent, and ten-