COM 0091.031 2016-2018 - Laserfiche WebLink

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P1 sPEcLkL COUCLL COUNTY CLERK BELL H I PR.2 COUNTY OF HAWAII COMIA. Aloha to you All: 2017 MAY 1 8 PH 12: .3 7 I am writing this testimony to you because unfortunately a clerical error was made on the Hawaiicounty.gov website, which incorrectly directed me to the Waimea Council office to submit public testimony to the council. I am enclosing a copy below of the web page so you can confirm the misinformation. Testimony: My name is Thomas Vincent Keelan, and I live at 44-2883 Kalopa Mauka Road in Honokaa Hawaii. I am a retired teacher as of August 2016. My pension from the time I served the Department of Education is very small, and I am required to pay one-half of my portion of all my medical coverage on a monthly basis, which makes that net check even smaller. I taught for 12 years at Honokaa High School. I have only this and my life savings to live on. During my tenure at this school I was privileged and honored to teach some wonderful students. One of the subjects that I taught was a senior class in Economics. This was an important subject and it was a reality check for those seniors that were about to become adults in the real world. An important concept in that class explaining to students "Wants and Needs". To properly educate them in this area, I required them to create a real life budget to give them an understanding of what it would cost them to get their first private residence. They researched one bedroom apartment costs in Honokaa, Kona, and Hilo. I asked them to interact with their parents to find out some of the other expenses such as cable TV, electric utilities, water and sewer, food budget, cell phone.... I could go on but you get the picture. Then I asked them to add a car to that budget with all its attending expenses.. This was a line item budget and it was very detailed, sort of what you are working on for our County today. When they totaled the line items, we used that figure to arrive at a monthly budget amount. Using that number, we annualized that number and this disclosed to them how much they needed to make in order to live "the way they wanted". Many were stunned when we converted that number to an hourly wage. Most students ended up needing to make at least$24 per hour in wages. The virtual "straw that broke the camels back" was when I required them to account for the taxes, Federal, State, Social Security, Medicare, which we then took out of the gross income amount. Once they understood the real numbers, I required them to go through their budget list and factor in the Needs- Food, Shelter, and clothing versus the Wants- everything else in the budget. Finally, the students had to go through their budget to eliminate the Wants that they could not afford. I would like to believe that your approach to our County Budget is being made the same way.However, the facts speak otherwise.On top of$68 Million in property tax increases over the last five (5) years, our Mayor is proposing another $15.6 Million in new property taxes. This equates to over $421.00 for every man, woman and child on this island based on the 2016 census count. In other words we have faced a 40%property tax increase in the last six years. Today, my property taxes and homeowners insurance are about to exceed the amount I pay in principal and interest on my home loan. This cannot and should not continue. Perhaps you might consider learning from my students experience. Most learned they cannot afford to move out of their parents home when they reach adulthood.They also are aware that the entry costs to eventually getting their own home is spiraling away from them. This is not pono. Comm. No qk 1 Ref. To: [� Ref. Date MAY 1 8 M