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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0675.207 2022-2024/ POLUO bill 1z CQMM. 67J From: Richard Prohoroff Sent: Thursday, July 4, 2024 8:25 AM To: Council Testimony Subject: bill 121 Attachments: Testimony bill121 april 15.docx; Eight Years ago I decided to become a hosted vacation r.docx; NEW TESTIMONY AGAINST BILL 121 4-2-24.docx Bill 121 The council's solution for problems? What Problems? Not once has the council offered any research that explains how 16 pages of more regulations is in the best interests of its Taxpayers. The real research on Hawaii's affordable housing problems shows regulatory excess and high costs are the main housing problems. Having a hosted guesthouse on private road, private water system is now bad! and to be regulated out of business? If rented at market value it would never be "affordable" housing. The state and county have approved billions of dollars of development in west Hawaii. I watched what was once pristine shoreline turn into mega resorts. The tax revenues and developer affordable housing dollars must have been and still are millions of dollars and what has the council done to address the affordable housing issue. Almost nothing and we are talking about over a 40-year period. The wasted time adding more regulation to the stvr industry, an industry that pays in excess of 7 hundred million dollars in taxes yearly, employs over 45 thousand workers would be better spent reviewing your failed management of the resort industries affordable housing requirements. Please table this bill until you can explain its intent with research and examples to back up the reasoning. Richard Prohoroff r�a C) C7 comn'1. No. Ref. To: Ref. Date JUL8 2024 NEW TESTIMONY AGAINST BILL 121 I'M VERY DISSAPOINTED . some legislators are so smart that they are going to force numerous HOSTED vacation rentals to close thinking R will solve their incompetence in creating an environment that would provide a free market solution to affordable housing. Most of the hosted vacation are in areas that never will be affordable rentals and the ones that could be are often family trying to make ends meet. Being on a private road and a private water system what interest is it of the county to take property rights away from me. Over the years my property has been home to family and as time marches on rented outside of family and now in old age as a vacation rental my best means of retirement. I see no provision in this bill for the county to take over our deteriorating road and hook me up to county water and offer major financial and technical assistance to be able to farm marginal desert land. Over the last 50 years you council people have done great partnering with developers and hotels and making sure resort workers have opportunity for housing. Woops! 1 No! Why not? No Matter how many Leis you wear at your fundraisers the leis and your wages are on the backs of workers, voters who deserve better, smarter Solutions. Solutions that secure property rights not take them away. The cost and difficulty of building a single-family home or even an addition or remodel is ridiculous here. Interest rates and yearlong plus waiting for permits, Housing programs with multiple year wait times. Unfarmable ag land acreage that is impossible to get zoning to build additional housing, The difficulty of getting a water meter are just a few of the issues that should be on our elected officials' priorities. Richard Prohoroff Previous TESTIMONY AGAINST BILL 121 Eight Years ago I decided to become a hosted vacation rental on my 3 acres of ag unplanned land. Many years of long-term renting had barley paid taxes and repairs and as a senior citizen with limited assets the hosted rental is my best option to be able to survive. I have never missed a tax payment and never had a complaint. The business also employs yard and housekeeping people averaging a little under two thousand dollars a month. My subdivision is private land, private road and private water system. Any agriculture here is not really feasible. Water is 10$ for 1000 gallons and if your pump well water we pay the highest electricity costs in the us. This bill is an over reach of government essentially taking property rights away from citizens. I fail to see what problem the bill stopping hosted rentals on ag land achieves. Ag lands that have viable farming often need extra incomes to survive and expand. 1 will not be entering the long-term rental market. I use my rental for family and friends for parts of the year. When the first stvr regulations came out the rules specifically allowed hosted rentals to continue and that makes sense. Owners living on the property ensures any problems are taken care of and after 6 years I have never had a problem or required any county or state resources. Bill 121 looks like the authors who are not my representatives stayed up late at night thinking up too many rules and regulations. Who benefits? Hosted stvr's pay their taxes. Show me a list of big problems created by mostly people trying to stay on their own land supplementing or depending on renting their own assets. Thinking that onerous regulation will force people to farm unfarmable land and Remove income from working farms somehow benefits the county is foolish. Thinking that taking the ability away from people to rent their property as they see fit will somehow fix the affordable housing market is a fallacy. Cost of land, taxes, location will dictate rental prices and in great locations rents will always high. The state and counties are among the largest landowners in the state. State wide private property held by individuals is small. The decades long failure to offer affordable land and less regulation is your housing crisis. I don't like government overreach trying to fix a problem that's not there. I hope that there are not hotel industry organizations in the background of this. Testimony biII121 Once again, I'm submitting testimony against a bill that will in all likelihood TAKE from me my hosted rental business and a chance for retirement. My ohana house has over the years done its job as family housing, rental and now for 9 years as a hosted stvr. Never had a problem, never had a complaint, never missed a tax payment have almost only 5-star reviews. I would argue that most of the hosted rentals on ag land are similar to mine. Our representatives rather streamlining and simplifying regulations continue to make them more and more onerous. The county and state should be protecting my property rights not TAKING them away. The biggest costs of any business in Hawaii are regulations and legislators continue add and add and add more. The American hotel and lodging association continue to lobby state and county politicians to TAKE my livelihood away and apparently have the legislators' ears while local homeowners' testimonies trying to protect their property rights keeps falling on deaf ears. Please do your jobs scrap this bill. Listen to homeowners' testimony. Meet your citizens needs not cooperate wants. Hosted rentals offer a way for families and individuals stay on the land they own. Richard prohoroff