MIN CHARTER 2019-01-25 (2018-2020)

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Hawai`i County Charter Commission -7 January 25, 2019 Captain Cook. I am board member. I apologize that in my written testimony I failed to put "Friends of in front of the garden name. We formed the friends as our President explained, three years ago. I am in opposition to CA -7 and CA -13 and I am for CA -9. I won't read my testimony verbatim. You have heard so much expert testimony today, so much information. Overall I want to say that I feel there are many treasured places and lands yet to be protected on this island. Not only archaeological sites, but especially ecosystems and lands that people value and treasure for open space. P.O.N.C., or PONC as we call it, is an enlightened fund and the compromise of CA -7 would reduce it and at a high cost. A high future cost I think to the people and the future and I just wanted to focus on a couple of financial costs that I see future wise. First of all, it has already been mentioned many times already today, but it is fundamentally the participation of the community in the future of the island. And this fund is just a bubbling up of hundreds of people who love the land and it is a fair and vetted process. Everything is not going to get saved. We know that, but it allows people to come forward and really participate and that is so strong for the island, especially in the face of the challenges of tourism that is challenging to our local cultures. Also for long term tax base, I don't have figures but it seems to me that revenue gains in these vital areas will exceed taxes that might otherwise be generated on lands and near lands that are saved because when you save important lands all lands nearby become more valuable and we make an island with a future that has more valuable both to tourism and to local people, so I think there are fundamental values there that... you could, I don't have figures, but I think you could put figures there. The figure we do have is the matching one that other people have said, the 10.7 million dollar matching which we are raising matching with our garden effort. We are now over a million in matching that we are bringing to the table and other groups bringing that would double or triple the 10 million over ten years in the future should you save PONC, I think you can see that, and staff it... the potential for the development would raise more, would bring more money to the islands and we are bringing three sources for ours. We have Federal at over half a million, we have State, over $700,000 and we have private, over $100,000 coming to the table. So, and others would do similarly, there is a lot of talented people on this island who care, so those I think are the main things on the reason not to compromise and cut PONC down. Those same things of course apply to why should we keep PONC as it is and even better, have at least one person that could help shepherd and help the community go through the process of applying and creating these opportunities. I think PONC supports statewide planning goals, but for this island, I think these protected lands are fundamental to so many things, economic, cultural, agricultural, educational, recreational, youth development and tourism vitality for the island. It is just a wealth of you know, opportunity. Overall, I just implore you to support a future that is a real vision for the island where we take a positive vision, and with the CA -13, you know, I feel like that is just going to undercut the future. We need to Page 33