HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0962.013 2018-2020 From: Kim Castellano
Sent: Wednesday, June 03, 2020 9:14 AM
To: Council Testimony 3
Subject: Against the assessment on residential tier two property
COUNTY CLERK
Testimony to the Hawaii County Council COUNTY OF HAWAI,I
Bill 144, Draft 3 RECEIVED
June 3, 2020 Time :t
Data JUN 0 3 2020
TO: Harry Kim, Mayor, Hawaii County
Aaron Chung, Chair, Hawaii County Council
And all members of the Hawaii County Council
RE: Real Property Tax Rate Adjustments
We are against the rise in property taxes on "residential tier two property".
We believe this is unfair for a few reasons:
Your solution to the budget shortfall relies on increasing property taxes for people who can't/don't vote here. While we understand how
that can be a popular move politically,the wording in your bill also penalizes some residents.
For us,we already cannot claim the resident homeowner exemption,despite being here at least 200 days, because we rent our house
when we are not on island. (Our house is resort zoned.) Now you want to increase our property tax rate when we are already helping
bring in more tax revenue by collecting and remitting GET and TAT on the house rental.And you are doing it in a year where we have
lost hundreds of thousands of dollars in bookings and cancelled reservations due to your extended Short-Term Vacation Rental (STVR)
ban WITH NO END IN SIGHT.
Are you trying to kick us when we are down?Are you trying to squeeze us so hard that we have to sell the house and lay off all the
local caretakers and tradespeople we employ?Are you even working on plans to help STVRs reopen quickly and safely?We would
love to participate in a system where owners and guests/visitors legally affirm they will abide by all quarantine rules and regulations, or
face consequences which could be immediate expulsion from the island, and/or fines.
We would like you to recognize that there are residents with expensive houses on the island who do not qualify for the homeowners tax
exemption because we have chosen to rent our home when we are off island.We are not wealthy enough to let our house sit vacant
and we are also helping bring in tax revenue in our absence.We are the people who will be most punished by this bill.
We are asking, at a minimum, for the wording of your bill to apply only to non-residents, not just to those who do not qualify for the
homeowners exemption. However, we think it is most fair and in the best interest of bringing income into the county coffers that you
extend the homeowners exemption to all residents, including those who rent their homes,so you can keep the wording in the bill as is.
If you do not make these changes,then we implore you to postpone these assessments to give us time to try and recover from the
losses we have incurred this year.
We look forward to your comments and your assistance in correcting this matter.We thank you for the opportunity to submit this
testimony.
Aloha,
Kim&Andy Castellano
Puako, Hawaii
Comm. o.
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Ref.tate JOIN 2020