2012-COH-A Technical Assistance Report Evaluating Property Tax Policies and Administrative Practices in Hawaii County

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Recommendation 33: The Council should require the Finance Department to analyze the effects of the 3% assessed value increase cap to determine if the underlying policies are being fulfilled. In addition, although no new claims can be made for the non-speculative residential use dedication, the Council should review the underlying policies for retaining this value freeze for properties remaining under the dedication. Both programs should be reviewed with respect to the different tax treatment that results for similarly situated properties with and without the dedication or the 3% cap. Recommendation 34: The Council may wish to consider incorporating sunset provisions into exemptions to force periodic review of underlying policies. Recommendation 35: The Council should consider establishing a stakeholder committee to identify problems related to tax relief and review options. Recommendation 36: The Council should consider establishing a stakeholder committee, including taxpayers, to determine specific ways to make the relationship between taxes and value changes more transparent. Recommendation 37: The Council should revise Section 19-93 of the Code. Specifically, it should reduce the 20 percent value-difference threshold to no more than 10 percent, at least for residential property. The current non-uniformity ground should be revised to permit non-uniformity appeals based on valuation practices generally. The filing fee requirement should be eliminated, at least on principal residences. Appellants should not be allowed to appeal only the land value or the improvement value without contending that the sum of the land and building values exceeds the over-valuation threshold that is adopted. Recommendation 38: The Council should make the first stage in the appeal process an informal appeal to the Division. Recommendation 39: The Council should require the Finance Department to undertake an analysis of the cause of the increase in the gap between delinquencies and delinquent tax collections to determine whether there is weakness in billing and collection procedures. xx