CHC 1979-04-03 - Laserfiche WebLink

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MR. SCHUTTE: Ms. Isbell , the same thing exists here where lands can be put to specific use and dedi- cated for such use and you do have the benefits of the tax differential. MS. ISBELL: If you 've dedicated it to agriculture. But if you do sell it we are talking about going back on a 5 year basis and taxing you. . . . MR. SCHUTTE : The same thing exists here, today. You can dedicate it and lock it in for 10 years or 20 years whichever happens to be to your best advantage and what it does is guarantee that this land will not be used for anything else other than its specific use for that length of time and if for some reason or other you decide to change that use then the tax people will come in and assess you on the back taxes for the higher and better use that you have put that property to. MS. ISBELL: How many years? MR. SCHUTTE: Within a ten or twenty year period you can dedicate this land. But_they will go back from-,day one, the day that you change this, and assess you on that basis. So that you do have the benefit of specific use for any particular piece of property. MS. ISBELL: What about non-dedicated agri- cultural land? MR. SCHUTTE: Non-dedicated agricultural lands go for the highest and best use under agriculture whatever that may be. If truck crops happens to be the highest and best use then your land would be assessed on that particular use, right? There is a way out. If an individual--what I am trying to get at--if an individual is sincere enough about using this part- icular piece of land for agriculture, he does have a way of doing It without becoming overtaxed for subdivision development or tourist development that may come up right next door. It does have this ability. I think if you' go back+. sorer ,-the`- records of the tax office you ' ll find this exists with the Waikoloa lands and the adjoining Waikoloa lands is owned by Parker Ranch. They had a test case in court relative to the higher and best use of those lands. All these lands can be dedicated for a specific use. MS. ISBELL: Okay, what about the man who lives in a fairly rural area but his land is zoned as a resi- dence and up comes a hotel or condominium next to him. He does not have the opportunity to stay in that same tax bracket. His property goes up to what ' s around him. This is how they assess it. These people are the ones, really, we are talking about. I gave you the Oregon example and I 'm glad to hear Hawaii has this. I don ' t know all the tax laws but I ' ll certainly look that one up. I do think there are some real inequities here on people who are taxed. - 8 -