Comm No 0021.009 - Testimony - CA-7 - PONC fund and Maintenance fund

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Richard H. Bennett Ph.D., Chairman Hawaii Island Council, Hawaiian Islands Land Trust P. 0. Box 895 Honaunau, HI 96726 December 13, 2018 County of Hawaii, Charter Commission Dear Commissioners, Please hear this passionate appeal. On behalf of the land conservation community of our island, I want to go on record as unyieldingly opposing any reduction in the funding formula for the Open Space Fund (Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation) including the maintenance portion. I make this plea for all of us that cherish the many unique lands that sustain us physically and spiritually. Moreover, I make this plea to maintain the land fund. Lands that are protected by private and public funds is a cost-effective measure that conserves county financial resources. On first blush, this may seem counter -intuitive, but please allow me to elaborate. Over the decades I have had the honor to serve in leadership positions in several land trusts, including the Hawaiian Island Land Trust. There are about 1500 Land Trusts in the United States and several in the state of Hawai`i, and they have worked most effectively with the county. Land Trusts are nonprofit corporations that work to protect lands in a wholly voluntary and cost- effective manner. Lands in trust are a great benefit to their communities at minimal cost to the operations of government. The Hawaiian Islands Land Trust (HILT) has worked with PONC on numerous project lands and assisted this all important mission. We look forward to continuing this partnership. As a Trustee of the Sonoma Land Trust in California in 1995, a friend and co-founder of the Marin Agricultural Land Trust became the CEO of the American Farmland Trust. Ralph Grossi working with the economists of the USDA Economic Research Service, began analyses called Cost of Services Studies. These now include over 151 county -based studies. These studies project the costs to local government that is incurred when undeveloped lands are developed for residential, commercial or agriculture use. The studies compare the property tax revenues each major land uses incur and contrast that to the costs of government services required for each. In summary agricultural land use, and commercial land use generate more tax revenue than the services they require. In distinct contrast, residential and especially rural residential development incurs about $1.27 dollars or more, in some counties over two dollars, for the cost of services for each one dollar in tax revenue paid by the land owner. That is an average 27% government revenue deficit accross 151 communities, for residential lands and its people that require services. An example county, Skagit in Washington State is similar to Hawaii County in that is mostly rural undeveloped forest and agriculture farmlands, dotted by small communities. It has a population of 125,000 and a land area of 1.7 thousand square miles. Comm. No. 21.9