HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0600.020 2022-2024 P/ FC/
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From: Bill Neilson
Sent: Monday, December 18, 2023 9:47 AM
To: Council Testimony
Subject: Testimony: Bill 104-D2... Create New Long-Term Rental TAX CLASS --
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As I understand it(see last part end of proposal):Simply put,this is just a County Notice to Long-Term RentJ Pro�{ecty
Owners that your property taxes are being increased effective 2025...
There is no'incentive'to me as a Long-Term Rental Property owner listed in the proposal because it just discusses
allowance and inclusion of Short-Term Leases
I, and all other Long-Term Rental property owners I know, choose to rent to Long-Term tenants so don't have to deal
with the constant turn-over of people moving in and out...that you must deal with on short-term rentals. If I wanted all
that drama I would apply for a TAT tax license for Short-Term Rentals... instead of just my GE Tax license for Long-Term
Rentals.
So, I'm not even sure why this proposal (allowing short-term renters into a long-term rental property) is seen as some
kind of'incentive'and somehow benefits Long-Term Rental property owners-since there's time limits and financial
penalties if not correctly followed-keeping in mind the current tax requirements are hard enough to follow-now want
to add more complicated flaming hoops to jump through.
Just the means of posting of this proposal (and very short limited response time alone)given to long-term property
owners is a 'Big Red Flag'-I wake up Monday morning(busiest day for any business)and learn this proposal was created
and I have'only 3 hours'to respond by 12noon with any comments to be considered by County Council... I only learned
about this because it appeared in my FB feed from another property owner.The'proper'way to notify Long-Term
Property Owners is to send written letter notice to all those reporting Rental Income on their GE Tax Accounts-not thru
some social media post.Also this was planned and publicized during holiday travel season when many property owners
are off-island... Last time I checked it's called a midnight back-door secretly approved tax hike !Jus sayin
My 2cent opinion on the 'real reason'for this proposal:Ask ANY current Long-Term Rental Landlord-the majority of
housing inquiries on any Long-Term vacancy are from County Housing Voucher Holders. I can confirm this because I just
recently had 2 vacancies and 90%of housing inquiries were from those approved for Section8 rental assistance.Also,
Other Landlords I know experienced the same thing. County Housing-AND-our Political Leaders have FAILED-They have
blatantly'dropped the ball'the past few years on monitoring the need for subsidized housing and have ignored the fact
the population here has been increasing.
THAT is what this proposal is'really all about'-forcing Long-Term Rental Property Owners'FUND'the building of new
county housing-by increasing just their property taxes... last I checked,taxing indiscriminately is called 'discrimination'.
Summary:
Basically, Long-Term Rental Property Owners are paying for the misjudgement, mismanagement, and lack of monitoring
of County long-term housing needs.
Throwing the cost burden onto Long-Term Property Owners(by forcing them to pay for new county voucher housing
developments) is'not'an ethical solution-Reality Check: it's using others to bear the burden of your mistakes.
Mahalo for the Council's extremely valuable time-much appreciated. Comm. No. 00.
Ref. To:
1 Ref.•Date .DEC 1 9 2023
Aloha &Happy Holidays !
William Neilson, Hilo Long-Term Rental property owner
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