2018-09-20 Leeward Exh B (Bill 108 re Short-term Vacation Rentals)

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everything, but if we don’t have a way to enforce it, then why don’t we just throw the rules away. Right now, the State of Hawai‘i loses a ton of money, a ton of money, it’s not small amounts of money, a ton of money to people that just don’t pay their taxes. And that’s what concerns me. We are going to have this nice legislation and everything, and all those people that are compliant and do pay their taxes are going to sit there and put in their permits, they are going to get the okay, and they are going to go out and they are going to have, you know, a compliant place; that the people that aren’t are, continue to not pay taxes and continue to not register these. And when complaints are made, which I have known people have come in and said these people are non-residents, they come back, they are still resident on their property taxes. So I don’t know what’s going on, but I hope that at the end of the day we at least benefit from having short-term rentals as community, that we start collecting the taxes. The other issue is Queensland, New Zealand; you probably have never been there, but let me tell you about their rental situation. Businesses buy houses to house their employees, because everybody is on Airbnb and every available space is now a short-term rental. That address your limit on short-term rentals right there. If you want to look it up, go right ahead. They have, that’s their issue there. So if we are looking at freeing up space for kids to buy a house here, own a house here, we are not addressing that with the short-term rental. In regards to someone building an ‘ohana on their, on their thing to give a short, or a longer term rental, look at the money. If you are making more money on a short-term rental with less stress, you are going to go with the short-term rental; you are not going to go for a long-term rental. Maybe looking into the benefits of easiness of people will be making more money on a long-term rental versus a short-term rental. Because if you look at the money, that’s where the people are going to go. C. THOMPSON: My name is Charla Thompson. I live in Kona and I’ve lived here 33 years, and I remember Kona the way it used to be, too. So as a way to disclosure, how many people on this Commission are either property managers or realtors? Can I ask that? UNGER: I’d rather not have a question-and-answer period — C. THOMPSON: Okay — UNGER: — if you just stick to your testimony. C. THOMPSON: — it’s not a question-and-answer period. I’m just wondering who I’m talking to because it would be, it would be helpful for me to know whom I’m addressing. UNGER: Yeah, that’s fine — C. THOMPSON: Okay, not allowed, okay, that’s fine. I looked up zoning en.wikipedia, and it defines zoning this way: “The primary purpose of zoning is to segregate uses that are thought to be incompatible. In practice, zoning also is used to prevent new development from interfering with existing uses and to preserve the character of a community.” Our city planners created zones to allow for businesses thrive together and to protect residential neighborhoods from the hazards and interruptions they would bring to family neighborhoods. Resort districts were created to accommodate the lifestyle of vacationers, realizing the mistake it would be to mix 28 EXHIBIT B