HomeMy WebLinkAbout2024-04-16 Bill 121 Don & Kerrill Kephart From: don keohartCcbearthIink.net
To: LPCtestimonv
Subject: FW: STVRs
Date: Tuesday,April 16,2024 4:43:25 PM
From: donkephart@earthlink.net<donkephart@earthlink.net>
Sent: Tuesday, April 16, 2024 4:13 PM
To: 'LPC' <testimony@ hawaiicou nty.gov>
Subject: STVRs
April 16, 2024
Once again we want to protest against proposed legislation to impose even
more expenses and hoops to jump through for hosts of STVRs in Hawaii
County. We are already paying almost 20% off the top of our earned income
for state and county TAT and GET taxes. Additional fees make us feel as if we
are being gouged just because we have been successful. We have been renting
out a five-bedroom house for 34 years as a STVR. We live on the property and
manage it ourselves. In all of that time, we have never had one complaint. We
enforce noise regulations, pay our taxes, and provide ample off-street parking.
Our vacation rental is clean and well maintained. We keep our rates low so
that we can provide an affordable venue for multi-generational families to
enjoy our island and one another's company. We also provide a venue for
medical students, science teams, church groups, construction workers,
meditation groups, yoga groups, athletes and their families, health workers,
etc. Our clientele is not attracted to hotels or to condos in resort areas. They
simply will find somewhere more hospitable to spend their money.
We feel as if it is unfair to cut our income off or to charge us even more for the
service we are providing. We built the house as owner-builders with the idea
of it helping us (two retired public schoolteachers) make ends meet in a state
that has an excessively high standard of living. We have tried to follow the
rules and color inside the lines while watching the county ignore those who
haven't been so meticulous. Your emphasis should be on more equitable and
rigorous tax collection and more accountability on those owners of STVRs who
are not playing by the rules. Those of us who are trying to do the right thing
should not have to pay the consequences for those who are not. Creating
more rules to enforce when you cannot hold people accountable for the rules
you already have seems counterproductive and foolish.
Our county council is supposed to represent all of us—including those of us
who count on the income from our STVRs to augment our retirement income.
The pushback against all of this legislation has been palpable and powerful, but
most of us feel as if our representatives are not listening. Heather Kimball is
hellbent on soldiering on, fueled by her erroneous belief that she is going to
solve the housing shortage by penalizing us. Sometimes it is wiser to listen to
the concerns of your constituency rather than just doubling down on your own
agenda. This new legislation, should it pass, will be crippling to hosts and will
have a negative impact on the economy of the Big Island. It also sends the
wrong message to visitors who want to spend some time in the Aloha state.
Please enforce the rules you have and don't penalize us for following those
rules and for creating a successful business that supplements our retirement
income.
Thank you.
Don and Kerrill Kephart
donkephart(@earthlink.net
808-882-7321