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Murashige, Laura
From: Tiffany Edwards Hunt <newswoman@me.com>
Sent: Monday, May 22, 2017 8:03 AM -"(
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To: Council Testimony �C)
Cc: Kim, Harry
Subject: Tax break for long-term seniors?
.= =7--
Aloha
=Aloha Hawaii County Council (and the mayor),
Many of us are sitting back, quietly observing this administration and its pitch to raise our property
taxes.
It doesn't really sit well in Puna, particularly when we feel like we don't get our fair share with existing rates.There is no
joy, knowing we could pay more just to see the status quo... believe me, I am a community patroller who machine-gun
calls the mayor's office and the Parks and Recreation and anyone and everyone, trying to get our fair share out here.
This latest news report for a proposed tax break for "long-term" seniors begs commentary, however. First:Are you
kidding me?
Do you know what it reads? Discrimination. It's one thing to look out for the seniors on fixed incomes. It's another beast
to differentiate between the cool seniors and the loser seniors who just got to the island. Come on. That is not aloha.
Mayor Kim: remember years back when we were walking through the County Building and I showed you that poster that
read, "Come live aloha..."?We live in a mobile society where anybody with a computer can come to Hawaii and make a
living on wifi. That's the problem. Hawaii Tourism Authority is enticing people to move here with glossy ads depicting
gorgeous hula girls on sandy beaches. People find homes in Leilani Estates or Hawaiian Paradise Park or Sunrise Ridge
for half the price of their suburban tract home in Anywhere USA. Once they get here, they become taxpayers,just like
everyone else. Government shouldn't be trying to differentiate, when determining tax rates. It's tolerable that you make
an age differentiation. I understand it, because I respect my elders and I understand that in their retirement they don't
have a lot of cash flow to pay more taxes. But to try to come up with a number regarding who is considered Kama'aina,
really, that's just begging for Jimmy Kimmell to make fun of Hawaii Island in his late night show. Do we really want to be
a laughing stock to the rest of the nation?
If you are going to start this practice of tax relief for people who have lived here longer than others, how about tax relief
for people who have to do the County's work? I mean, should I bill the County for the weed-eating I do in the public
right-of-way in Pahoa? How about for my trash pickup and community patrols? Should my husband's tax bills be
discounted because I am active in the community? It sounds ridiculous to you, I'm sure... your proposal to not only
differentiate tax bills by age but also years of residency is equally ridiculous, believe me. I suggest you scrap it, before
everyone ends up being called racist and the 808 state gets called the racist state.That's kind of the inference here, in
case you don't see it. It's the "Grown Here, Not Flown Here" tax proposal and it is the anthesis of aloha.
Trash it.
Figure out another fair and equitable way to pay our bills.
Always with aloha,
Tiffany Edwards Hunt
P.O. Box 453
Pahoa, HI 96778
Feel free to forward with colorful commentary.
\m/\m/ a
aloha Wim. No. I •
Ref. To: MAP
Ref. Date JUN 0 5 2017