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From: Sophia"s Mom <br /> To: WPCtestimonv <br /> Subject: Testimony on the General Plan for the 3rd Time this year. <br /> Date: Sunday,November 3,2024 10:52:51 PM <br /> Aloha Honorabke County Officials, <br /> I spent a lot of time making online comments on the general plan that you proposed and I <br /> testified already, online with you, on zoom. <br /> It seems that the county doesn't understand our objections to the current changes in the plan, <br /> which talk about things that appear to indicate that we would want smart cities, and that we <br /> would want stakeholders versus homeowners. We farmers are just not making our thoughts <br /> clear to The Hawai'i County leadership? We prefer the general plan from 2005 and am <br /> wondering if the new Governor's leadership is causing this confusion about what we, the <br /> people, want. Believe me, we do not want to change that much. We would love to have the <br /> rights of farmers to keep their land without taxes being levied as if we are in RS <br /> neighborhoods, because we're not doing a business on our agricultural land. It's hard enough <br /> just to manage a parcel of agricultural land, much less make it into a new business in order to <br /> afford the taxes on it. There's no money in selling vegetables and fruit! You get like very little <br /> money selling fruit&vegetables and it takes a lot of time,plus it's only good for so long. very <br /> few of us are able to manage large animals. The people. I know that are doing that are already <br /> rich because they had money to buy large tracks of land, which the animals require. They <br /> could afford to build butchering capacity. That's very few people. Most of them made their <br /> money in the business world on the mainland and moved here. I tried to explain to the county <br /> there's a lot of stress and mental illness being in farming. Plus the suicide rate is high for <br /> farmers!!! if you would like statistics on this, I would be glad to provide them. You haven't <br /> worked so hard as to run a farm but when things get tight and there's no food coming in at the <br /> port, believe me you'll want us around. <br /> Let's go back to the way it was and forget all this highfalutin attempts to become something <br /> that we're not, profit-centered business people who farm. We are families who produce food <br /> for our own consumption and give away what we don't eat to the community, not via formal <br /> 501 C3's, which is difficult to say the least. There's only a couple of those available in my <br /> area. <br /> I don't know why you didn't hear the Farmer's saying"look if you raise my taxes this much, I <br /> have to sell my land"! I can't survive on retirement and Social Security and pay those kind of <br /> taxes. Let's support ag. which is what Hawaii island is supposed to be all about. The general <br /> plan is not making agricultural production by our homeowners a priority anymore with this <br /> plan. Nix it! Let's be `homeowner centered-Farmer centered' and not `stakeholder centered'. <br /> Mahalo for considering our views, <br /> April Lee <br /> Hawi,HI 96719 <br /> Sent from Proton Mail for iOS <br />