CHC 1979-04-03 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

MR. TRULSON: You are also asking us to con- sider two things as far as redistricting. Either do it now or wait until after the census. MS. ISBELL: That is correct. You would still have to do some reapportionment though because of the 4 districts you' ll have to decide by the one man , one vote, how many each district should have. For instance, the Waimea, Kailua-Kona, West Hawaii would probably have to have two because you must realize Waimea has also grown. It ' s noslonger the sleepy little town it used to be. Right now it has only one representative, as you know. The reapportionment is going to have to happen state wide also. I might add that Oregon has a law--I took just Oregon because it has so many good laws--they stated that if a reapportionment is not done by the legislature then the secretary of state will do it for them. So, there is no putting it off-it has to be done. It should have been done here on this county level long ago and I suggested that there are many volunteer groups. And, I think , people like the Exchange Club, Lions Club, people who know the importance of the political setup and are apolitical themselves would be willing to become involved in a census of this county if that were the way it should be done every eight years. Because you have these clubs in every community and they know their communities better than any census taker and they would also probably do it free of charge. If not, we can get the women to do it. MR. SCHUTTE: Ms. Isbell, with regards to your item Number 3, Property Tax, you mention here it is not to exceed 1% of its assessed value, with its assessed value not to increase more than 2% per year except that when the property is sold the assessed value goes to fair market value. The 2% that you speak of, that ' s on 100% of the market value? MS. ISBELL: That ' s correct. I might add that, again, I got an Oregon idea out of this. And it ' s because I know some former legislators from Oregon who live in Kona and I 'm always pumping them for what they used to do as a legislature and how we can improve our state, here. I think oftentimes we reinvent the wheel. For instance, aquaculture has been worked on for the past 5 years in Honolulu, but why not bring people from Israel and Chinaover who have been doing it for centuries and 60% of their whole protein intake is from aquaculture. They could tell us in a few moments what to do, not 5 years. The same holds true of states who have good laws. The Oregon law for agriculture use, for instance--if you have a piece of agricultural land it is based on an agricultural assess- ment and you are charged only the tax on the use of that land. However, if you subdivide it and sell it, obviously, you had other intentions, then the tax keeper goes back 5 years and taxes you as if it were a subdivision. This is an anti-speculation sort of clause and so is this one, Number 3. If you' re really going to sell your land and intend to make a big profit on it then you share that with the county. - 7 -