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

Home

Hawai`i County Charter Commission -10 April 25, 2019 and grant exemptions granted by the paragraph. And what I am thinking is that when you read the language of the Constitution, the enabling language under the Hawai`i Revised Statues, when it comes to setting real property taxes and rates, it really is a question of whether you can put that in a Charter or whether it is intended to be more of an Administrative and Legislative act and I think that that when you read everything together, that it is intended to be in the nature of more of a legislative act by ordinance as opposed to putting something in the Charter and that reflects the fact that typically Charters aren't revised on a yearly basis. Whereas an ordinance you can revise it on a yearly basis and then thereby create more flexibility. I think that trying to put something like this into the Charter is basically undermining our structure of government where the taxing authority is supposed to reside in the Council and through ordinance and it is too inflexible. I don't know that you can legally do it in the Charter and that is the question that I have. Cause when I read the Constitution and the HRS, but beyond that, I don't think that an individual case or an individual inequity in the application should then run how we adjust the tax code. It needs to be broader than that and it needs to be driven by a number of things. I personally you know, am happy in some cases that there is a minimum tax because not so much now, but I, when I used to look up the taxes on residences in my neighborhood, and I would find out that with all of the exemptions that you got for senior citizens, for disability, etc. etc. etc. not to mention the three percent cap and then the additional exemptions for valuations of properties worth less than a certain amount, that my neighbors, a number of them who, same house, same blueprint, four bedroom, two bath, four bedroom, two bath, all built at the same time, were paying substantially less than I was and would have paid almost nothing but for the minimum tax being there. And yet these were people who owned businesses, who I knew flew to Vegas several times a year, so they could definitely afford to pay more, and the inequities in the system frequently mean that younger property owners who have bought more recently end up paying more in real property taxes than homes that were bought a long time ago because they qualify for more exemptions, or they qualify for the three percent cap. You can't fix everything through a Charter because there are too many nuances and I don't think we should be cherry picking a particular issue in the Real Property Tax Code to fix in the Charter. Beyond that I don't know that we have the authority to do it in a Charter. Thank you. CHR. ADAMS: Any other comments from the Commission? Commissioner Rice. MS. RICE: I would agree with Commissioner Todd. I think that the... by putting it in the Charter we remove some of the flexibility and because the economy within the island changes and sometimes drastically, as when sugar went out, I think that the Administration and the legislative branch need the flexibility to Page 37