Thank you for Nancy Cook Lauer’s insightful article (“Tax changes hit West Hawaii hardest,” page 1, June 18) and kudos to Mayor Harry Kim’s vow to reduce the County Council’s rate hikes. ADVERTISING Thank you for Nancy Cook Lauer’s insightful
Thank you for Nancy Cook Lauer’s insightful article (“Tax changes hit West Hawaii hardest,” page 1, June 18) and kudos to Mayor Harry Kim’s vow to reduce the County Council’s rate hikes.
I concur that Mayor Kim’s across-the-board rate hike proposal for all property classifications other than affordable rental was “more fair for everyone.” The problem with successive non pro-rata rate increases is that, over time, they can create a huge disparity, as evidenced by Ms. Lauer’s observation that North Kona’s District 8, with 11 percent of the county’s population, is responsible for 33.4 percent of the property taxes.
One can parse the numbers in other ways, as well. For example, based on assessed valuation, the residential, apartment and hotel and resort classifications, because of the skewed rate structure, are shouldering more than their share of property taxes (3 percent, 3 percent and 1 percent, respectively), whereas the homeowner classification is paying 7 percent less.
Or, based on relative percentage allocations, the residential, apartment and hotel and resort classifications combined are responsible for approximately 55 percent of total property taxes whereas the agricultural or native forests and homeowner classifications are responsible for approximately 33 percent of the total (18 percent and 15 percent, respectively).
Finally, if the property tax rate was applied pro rata across the board based solely on assessed value, the rate per would be approximately $10.15. Even if all rates were rolled back to the mayor’s original proposal, the rates for all classifications other than affordable rental ($6.15), agricultural or native forests ($9.85) and homeowner ($6.55) are in excess of that amount. The council’s action exacerbates that disparity, with the highest classification (apartment) at $11.70.
Granted, the mayor’s pro-rata suggestion would essentially maintain what was the relative percentage status quo, but that would at least stop the disparity from growing.
David Clark is a resident of Waikoloa.
