HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0236.005 2024-2026 P/PcPO
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From: Kristina Anderson
Sent: Sunday, May 4, 2025 11:46 AM
To: Council Testimony
Subject: Bill 47 OPPOSED ,
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Honorable Councilmembers,
Thank you for taking my testimony. I am adamantly opposed to Bill 47.
Well, I cannot believe we are back here again. Less than 6 months after you all decided
your original TAR bill was so bloated, so unpopular, so complicated and so ridiculous, you
now come forward with Bill 47, which you claim with pats on your backs is nothing more
than a "simple registration." After spending/wasting two years of time and taxpayer
resources for literally nothing, you trot this thing out like it's some kind of welcome grand
idea and answer to everyone's prayers.
Do you think we were born yesterday?
While at first glance, the new bill appears to be "simple registration." But indeed, a closer
inspection reveals this is actually a malevolent trojan horse loaded with more land mines
than anything else you ever heretofore proposed. It's also still replete with some of the
things "Community" hated the most.
One example: Enormous, targeted punitive fines. And apparently the mandate that
unpaid fines for not registering will lead to having your property liened and sold as though
you didn't pay your property taxes! What? A minor civil violation should not lead to a tax
lien. Is that legal? You are losing your home not because of taxes but because of simple
non-compliance where you didn't even get the chance to cure the violation? Draconian!
Or this: I don't understand why a host and an owner are " jointly and severally liable" for
the fines and violations. What if it's a tenant who lives on site and is just responsible for a
few managerial duties? I think this could be unconstitutional. How can someone not
involved in the ownership of a property be responsible for fines! It's absurd. What if they
are a renter, and they don't own a piece of real property in which to affix a lien on? This
was in the previous legislation too. I hated it then too.
These are just two examples that I find troubling in this so-called simple registration bill.
There's much more but I am already wearing of enumerating them in a letter of t-sti ony
again. Comm. Ao e
Ref. To: :1 0 1141 V4 i
1 Ref. !Me MAY - 6 2025
I am not in this business anymore and no longer have no skin in the game. (You have
succeeded in getting at least one kupuna to quit!) But what infuriates me no end is the
way you councilmembers seem to think there is some ginormous money being made by
families., kupuna hosts or single moms renting out a spare room or ohana. I have to
honestly ask again. Don't you have anything better to work on? Something that helps the
community instead of making life harder?
And speaking of life being harder for Hawaii Island residents, tourism to the United States
and travel in general has dropped off a cliff, in case you haven't noticed. We are headed
for a major, self-inflicted recession imposed by the Trump administration, which as
longtime residents of this island know, will hit us doubly or triply hard and will make Covid
supply chain shortages and hyper inflation look like the good old days. Coming soon!
Yet you spend your time on this nonsense! Again. After the community and at least one
planning commission rejected it outright. After endless parades of people gave their time
to testify multiple times about what they hated about 121. After you went down rabbit hole
after rabbit hole with this bad idea for two solid years. Especially Heather.
Why not be proactive and help the community prepare for the upcoming economic
catastrophe instead of limiting our ways to make income and participate in the state's
largest industry? We do understand that you, with your high county council salaries of
$86k annually plus benefits are safe, and don't have to worry about tariffs or economic
conditions like the rest of us low-income peasants. So maybe that's why you are
comfortable introducing more legislation to hurt residents.
Really shameful that you cannot use your well-paid positions to actually help constituents
for a change.
Sincerely,
Kristina Anderson
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