Organic tax break should not be considered
A good, informative article was written by Nancy Cook Lauer in West Hawaii Today‘s Sept. 9 edition on the proposed organic tax break. I question the rationals for the tax break as requested by Councilman Greggor Ilagan from lower Puna. Tax breaks are all set up to accommodate specific groups of special interests.
In dealing with the Organic Farmers Tax Break, the council members need only to go to some health food store and compare the prices of the organic produce to the nonorganic produce. There is a definite price difference, which implies that the organically grown produce commands a greater value as reflected in the costs to purchase it.
In essence, once the organically grown produce is harvested, it is dealt with the same as the nonorganically grown produce until it reaches the store shelf where it is offered for sale. The difference in price should reflect the farmer’s production costs and his profit, not the store’s increased profit.
Demand for organic produce should cover the production cost. Our county should not be involved in making produce more affordable through tax breaks. Let supply and demand control that issue.
If there needs to be a new category for tax breaks, I think that land owners who allow vacant land to sit idle should be the benefactors. They are the ones who keep the island green. Vacant lands have become the corridors for tour helicopters as they traverse the island filled with tourists who pay to see spectacular views. Instead, vacant land owners are taxed to the maximum and prematurely forced to either sell to a developer or develop the land themselves.
Listen to the aged among us who often reflect on “the old days when the island was green” and ask yourself, “Do we really want our island to remain green as we now know it?” Then ask, “How can we best ensure that future result?”
Leningrad Elarionoff
Waimea