2011-04-27 Cost of Government Commission Minutes

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argument over the bond float, right, whether you float it down when you can get low prices or do you add that to the ongoing, the debt of the county? And I think you’ve always had a council that wants a little bit more control over that rather than fixed percentage. But a fixed percentage, I think, would at least direct that a certain amount is spent. But you also have to have political will to go over and above. Cause if what you’re collecting now, if your vision is that you need more than what you’re collecting right now, then that requires the council to add on. So, I had looked at one idea. In Kailua-Kona we did, under state authorizing legislation, we did a business improvement district. And this doesn’t address all the islandwide stuff. But I thought that maybe there should be state enabling legislation for something like subdivision improvement districts where the county collects the money. It’s kind of a CF community facilities, but you’ve a little more flexibility and it’s not necessarily new infrastructure. It could be maintenance of existing infrastructure, but the county would collect the money and then you’d have a citizens group like you have with Kailua-Kona that administers and determines how that money is expanded. The reaction I’ve had from people in the public when I talk, what a flack that is. The perception that I’m already paying taxes, and this is a personal note, this is not as Planning Director. I don’t pay enough taxes. I’m in the homeowner’s class. When I bought my home in 1989, my real property taxes were about $650. And that’s because the assessment on my home at that time was $8.50 per thousand. I bought my house at $87,000 and you get your $40,000 deduction. It was about $650. I have been paying less than $500 a year for the last couple of years on the same house that’s worth considerably more 20 years later. So, I’m paying less today than I paid 20 years ago. And yet in 20 years the cost of government services has not remained static and it has not gone down. And so,on my street, other than the two homes that are rental properties that we’re paying significantly more maybe because they were rentals and didn’t get any of the homeowner exemptions. Everybody else on my street was paying less in real property taxes then me because they qualified for the $100 minimum. So, we’re talking about 18 homes. Two homes were paying in the neighborhood of $2,000 a year in taxes. I was paying around $500, and just about everybody else was paying $100. And I’m going, you’re not paying for services. The firefighters coming and checking the fire hydrant in front of my house or the police responding to a call in my neighborhood, it’s worth more than $100 a year. I’m saying this as an individual, not as a Planning Director, as a taxpayer. I should be paying more. I’m willing to pay more. Homeowners exemptions, you have an exemption on the value of the land, you also have a three percent cap on valuation. I don’t think you need all of that. If you want the three percent cap, than maybe you don’t need some of those others. You can’t continue to pay, if I’m paying less than I paid 20 years ago for taxes. And that’s true for just about everybody on my street. MS. O’HARA: Well, thank you for that. When the mayor came in one of his first comments was we can’t continue to raise fees to the public. And I think he was referring primarily to property taxes. Yet, I agree with you. The house I live in with homeowner’s exemption, I’m paying well under $1,000, I’m not sure the exact number. MS. LEITHEAD-TODD: My position is not the mayor’s position. MS. O’HARA: Yeah, I know it isn’t, but if you were to take the same house, he’d pointed out that the Big Island is the size of Connecticut. If he were to take that same house and place it in Connecticut, it would have about the same value, market value. 33