2010-11-03 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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MR. SITKO: No requirements whatsoever. MR. ARMOUR: An example was we were looking at some property. It was seven and a half acres of ocean front property and in the ad and the sales person represented it as ag property, only $100 taxes. At one time it was listed as $2.5 million, and now it’s down to about $1.5 million. I looked at all of the taxes that would pay $100 taxes for several years. MS. O’HARA: Is it conservation land? MR. SITKO: Yes. The minimum tax and they were probably in one of the ag programs as pasture. So if you have seven acres, it’s $60 an acre. That comes down to below the minimum tax amount. We have a minimum tax of $100. MR. ARMOUR: The neighbor next door we know them, and they said, well they told us if we put a fence we would qualify for ag so we fenced one side of the property. And I said have they ever done ag on it? He said no, they put a fence on, they molded it when they put the fence and that’s the last time they done anything. MR. SITKO: Once again, we have to be reactive. So if somebody does inform us at this point, because we don’t have the ag specialist, we would be sending him out there to go confirm this. Right now it has to be done with the zone appraiser who covers that zone will have to go check. At that point, when you’re dealing with pasture, yes the whole property has to be fenced in. There has to be water for some animals there. But very honestly, you can run two goats on a property and they’d qualify. MS. O’HARA: So the livestock doesn’t even have to be present for the inspection? MR. SITKO: Not necessarily. MS. O’HARA: And I just wanted to get back, you said the real property tax revenues contribute 50 to 60% to the county’s revenue? MR. SITKO: Yes. MR. TAKABA: Do you think the ag values that are placed right now, if somebody is in ag, do you think it’s just right? Too low? Too high? MR. SITKO: They’re unrealistic. I don’t know when exactly the last time they were recalculated. Our ag specialist before we lost them to USDA again, had recalibrated what more reasonable rates would be. I am going to say that for pasture, they really didn’t move much. But for truck and gardening, orchards and others, yes they went up considerably. They will have to be submitted to council and actually also by ordinance, we have to rework them every five years now. MR. ARMOUR: One last question, is there any ordinance against it? Are you guys considered, when someone owes $100 for ag or very low property tax, to consolidate that into one bill instead of allowing two payments? 11