MIN CHARTER 2019-04-25 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -10 April 25, 2019 MR. HOPKINS: One may be doing vegetables which I will disclose we have... we grow kava on our property. We pay, somebody with... somebody is running a few dozen cattle, is paying two, the same $200 for the 292 acres as I pay on my 8,000 square feet. MS. MIURA: A few dozen cattle on 292 acres, depending on where the property is located, I would say for a majority of the island, 292 acres could and hopefully can support more than just a dozen cattle. However, unless you have a specific example for that one, I would say most ranchers would say they could have more cattle on it. We have come across other properties, I don't know your property exactly, but there is differences you know, we have had ranchers tell us that the carrying capacity that our office states should be allowed for the 10 acres is too high in some areas and that it does change depending on the year, and the season, and the type of grass allowed, and the rain, but it should not be the same rate. You shouldn't, it is not the same tax rate because the tax rates actually are the same and it is nine thirty-five no matter what you have. But I think you are saying the actual taxes paid, and it does depend right now how the Code is written and how the values are set for agriculture orchards, or intensive Ag is at a higher value than pasture. Pasture is the lowest value there is because of all of the resources it does take to generate income off of a ranch. And I know there is discretion... there is discrepancies and people argue back and forth on that, but right now as it is written, that is how it is. The Ag Committee does have a proposal to change that. MR. HOPKINS: Well, I hope you do have a proposal, one way or another because basically I can guarantee you that the person with that 292 acres did not pay the same price that was paid for the 8,000 square feet. That the market price between that 292 acres and the market price for that 8,000 square feet are very, very different. MS. MIURA: That's true. The program for agriculture is not based on the market value as it is right now because they are trying to encourage people to farm. If you start going by a percent of value, you may start to see a lot of people get out of agriculture and sell it to develop which I believe is not the purpose of our agricultural programs. MR. HOPKINS: Okay, we can get into a whole thing. Obviously like you have said, we haven't met, I sat on the Ag Taxation Board, the Ad Hoc Committee for Ag Taxation years ago and I am actually in the College of Ag so I support agriculture but we have a very unfair process right now. MS. MIURA: Mmm-hmm. MR. HOPKINS: And maybe we can agree that it is not doing what it is supposed to be doing. And we can bring up a lot of examples to show where it is not doing Page 35