COM 0666.000 2008-2010 - Laserfiche WebLink

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2009 Tax Board of Review Annual Report 6 E O 7. Section 19-53(e)(2)(A) should be amended to include in the homeowner's class an owner/occupied property used for care giving and/or care home. I Jnder the Current Code, an owner/occupied property that is partially used for a home-occupation and/or a rental qualifies to be in the homeowner's class but a property partially used as a care home does not qualify for this class, per the County's Planning Department. 8. Sales data be shared and used among the real property appraisal staff for their annual re-evaluations to avoid large differences in value between relatively comparable neighborhoods within close proximity to each other. The uniformity and equality provision of the county code requires ,a quality control program. 9. Many of the appeals this year involved large increases in building values some of which increased by more than 60%. While a "pricing ladder" printout was part of a few of the county's building appeal data, this printout was not part of the data given to each board member in most of the building appeals. It is again recommended that in the future this printout be included as a standard document in each Board member's packet. 10. Many appellants mentioned that they tried to compare prior years' assessments with their neighbors' but these were not available on the website. It is again recommended that prior years' market and assessed values be posted on the website, possibly back to 2004 which is the base year for the 3% growth cap. O 11. The Board again recommends that market modeling be implemented in the next year or two. Market modeling is the term commonly used by the real property tax division for the mass appraisal of improved properties (primarily single family residential type properties) by the sales comparison approach (versus the cost approach). 12. The Board recommends that there be better communication between the Real Property Tax Division and the Planning Department regarding home occupation, mainly having more definitive written determination to whether or not the Planning Department considers a business conducted on a property as home occupation. 13. Board members expressed interest in receiving training in the following areas: procedures and basic valuation analysis. Close Chairman's Comments The County of Hawaii Real Property Tax Division should look into the methodology for assessing real property to ensure that their values are consistent. They should also reevaluate the rules and qualifications for the agricultural exemption program. It seems that many homeowners are abusing these exemptions and the County needs to counter its intended purpose. Finally, support needs to be given or considered in terms of providing exemptions or discounts for the local small businesses. Small businesses are the economic O engine of the County and the County's future depends on a healthy and vibrant local business economy.