How does the county ensure that farmers and ranchers and “second home” malihinis pay their fair share of property taxes, while at the same time, provide incentives to keep land in agriculture or undeveloped?
With some 10,765 parcels totaling some $39.6 millions annually in lost revenue, the question is highly relevant to all who reside on the Big Island. Bill 218 (Councilwoman Wille) and Bill 219 (Councilman Ilagan) are obviously a step in the right direction.
It seems to me that Real Property Tax Administrator Stan Sitko needs more help but adding permanent staff is a costly way to go. Perhaps we could duplicate what the police and fire departments do, with reserve officers. Individuals would volunteer to be trained as Reserve Property Tax Inspectors. A Reserve Real Property Tax Administration Program would be established at UH-Hilo in conjunction with Sitko’s department. It would be an honors program for senior undergraduates, a master’s level course for graduate students in finance/planning/etc., and a continuing education program for community volunteers (real estate agents, retired folks, etc.). It would be team-taught each fall semester by Sitko and an appropriate Hilo professor. It would be fall term only so as to have the results of any appeals process for the spring tax returns.
A one-semester (18 hours) course might be nine classroom sessions (perhaps 7-9 p.m.) and eight two-hour fieldwork sessions to visit (inspect) the properties at the students discretion and write up site visit reports on each parcel. The 18th session would be an awards luncheon hosted by the county to award certificates to the class. Each site visit report would be reviewed by Sitko’s regular staff for completeness and fairness to make it an official county document, with each taxpayer notified of the result, explaining why it does or does not qualify for the tax reduction. An appeal process would be available, as it currently is.
It might start with a survey letter to each parcel owner, explaining the program and asking for feedback or perhaps responding to some questions. That alone might generate a dividend of an owner coming clean. If only 10 students inspected eight parcels that would be 80 parcels a year that might be re-evaluated; if only half a dozen lost their exempt status, that alone would probably pay for the program. (Initial seed money might come from the council members’ discretionary funds.)
Lanric Hyland is a resident of Kapaau