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Home My WebLink AboutCOM 0361.002 2012-2014 Margaret Wille rq'------ Phone No. Hilo: (808)961-8027 _ Council Member cP�',.y "•+., Phone No. Waimea: (808)887-2043 District 9-North and South Kohala "",��`� Fax No.: (808) 887-2072 �j •�� .-.•. E-Mail: mwille @co.hawaii.hi.us HAWAII COUNTY COUNCIL County of Hawai`i Hawaii County Building Holomua Center West Hawai`i Civic Center Bldg.A 25 Aupuni Street 64-1067 Mamalahoa Highway,Suite C-5 74-5044 Ane Keohokalole Hwy. Hilo, Hawaii 96720 Waimea, Hawaii 96743 Kailua-Kona, Hawai`i,96740 o n ;a O n . J = � a*� 0 TO: J Yoshimoto, Council Chair co and Members of the Hawai`i County Council - FROM: Margaret Wille, Council Member ^) 1k\ . >r. DATE: at.eptember 18, 2014 SUBJECT: Proposed Amendment to Bill No. 103; Relating to Real Property Tax Exemptions for Persons Who are Blind, Deaf, and/or Totally Disabled Please find attached a proposed amendment to Bill No. 103. The proposed amendment is illustrated below by Ramseyer format with respect to the contents of Bill No. 103 (material to be added is underscored). A draft copy of Bill No. 103, Draft 2, is attached with this amendment incorporated therein. Bill No. 103 is amended by amending subsection (b) of Section 19-75 (as contained in Section 1 of Bill No. 103)to read as follows: "(b) Any person who is qualified for the homeowner exemption under section 19- 71(c) and who is certified as blind, deaf, and/or totally disabled as defined in this section shall be exempt from real property taxes on real property owned and occupied as the principal home by the person up to, but not exceeding a taxable value of $50,000. Except that no exemption shall apply to any minimum tax payable under section 19-90(e) of this chapter." MW/dh Att. Comm. No (O I. 2- ge-- Serving the Interests of the People of Our Island Ref.To: Hawai`i County Is An Equal Opportunity Provider And Employer Ref. Date 3 0 71111 AN ORDINANCE AMENDING CHAPTER 19, ARTICLE 10, SECTION 19-75 OF THE HAWAII COUNTY CODE 1983 (2005 EDITION, AS AMENDED), RELATING TO REAL PROPERTY TAX EXEMPTIONS FOR PERSONS WHO ARE BLIND, DEAF, AND/OR TOTALLY DISABLED. BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF THE COUNTY OF HAWAII: SECTION 1. Chapter 19, article 10, section 19-75 of the Hawai`i County Code 1983 (2005 Edition, as amended) is amended to read as follows: "Section 19-75. Exemption, persons who are blind, deaf, and/or totally disabled. (a) Definitions as used in this chapter: (1) "Blind" means a person whose central visual acuity does not exceed 20/200 in the better eye with correcting lenses, or whose visual acuity is greater than 20/200 but is accompanied by a limitation in the field of vision such that the widest diameter of the visual field subtends an angle no greater than twenty degrees, as certified under this section. (2) "Deaf' means a person whose average loss in the speech frequencies (five hundred to two thousand Hertz) in the better ear is ninety-two decibels, or such other level as may be updated by American National Standards Institute (A.N.S.I.), or worse, as certified under this section. (3) "Totally disabled" means a person who is totally disabled, either physically or mentally, and who, except for such total disability, would be able to engage in substantial gainful business or occupation, as certified under this section. (b) Any person who is qualified for the homeowner exemption under section 19- 71(c) and who is certified as blind, deaf, and/or totally disabled as defined in this section shall be exempt from real property taxes on [a11] real property owned and occupied as the principal home by the person up to, but not exceeding a taxable value of$50,000. Except that no exemption shall apply to any minimum tax payable under section 19-90(e) of this chapter. (c) The disability shall be certified by: (1) a physician licensed under chapter 453 [or 160, or both,] Hawai`i Revised Statutes, (2) a qualified out-of-state physician who is currently licensed to practice in the state in which the physician resides, or (3) a commissioned medical officer in the United States military or public health service, engaged in the discharge of one's official duty. Certification for a person who is blind or deaf may also be made by a licensed optometrist or licensed audiologist as the case may be. Certification shall be on forms prescribed by the department of finance. For disabled veterans, the proof of disability submitted for section 19-73(1) from the Veterans Administration, may be substituted for the required certification. Official documentation from the Social Security Administration may also be substituted for the required . certification. (d) Any person who is certified as being temporarily blind, deaf, and/or totally disabled shall submit an annual certification or recertification, as required by this section. No exemption shall be allowed unless the required certification or recertification is submitted. (e) Any person who qualifies for an exemption under this section shall be allowed to apply for only one of the exemptions established in this section. (f) In the case of a lease of Hawaiian homestead land, where either a husband or wife is of non-Hawaiian descent, either spouse shall be entitled to the blind, deaf, or totally disabled exemption in the same manner as if either spouse was considered the owner thereof, provided proof of marriage is submitted to the director of finance. [(g) In the event that a person qualifies for the home exemption as provided in this section, the exemptions shall be granted to the claimant in the following order: the home exemption shall be granted first, then followed by the applicable blind, deaf, or totally disabled exemption on the property claimed as the owner's principal residence. Thereafter, the exemption provided by this section shall be applied to any other property designated by the claimant.]" SECTION 2. Material to be repealed is bracketed and stricken. New material is underscored. In printing this ordinance, the brackets, bracketed material, and underscoring need not be included. SECTION 3. Severability. If any provision of this ordinance or the application thereof to any person or circumstance is held invalid, such invalidity shall not affect other provisions or applications of the ordinance which can be given effect without the invalid provision or application, and to this end, the provisions of this ordinance are declared to be severable. SECTION 4. This ordinance shall take effect upon its approval. 2