Killing the luxury home goose
The resort communities up and down the west coast of the island were master planned by the county decades ago to create controlled growth and future job opportunities. These developments were not just planned hotels, they included high-end housing communities that would bring riches to our island for decades to come. Unfortunately, our elected officials now feel these philanthropic members of our community who already provide far more than they take must pay and pay big, how short sighted.
For many, these homes represent a lifetime of hard work and good fortune, which they openly share with our island people. These residents already contribute around 20% of the property tax for our island yet represent less than 1% of our housing. When will we stop, after we have stopped growth, shuttered our builders and laid off thousands?
In tough times, hotels lay off workers yet these homeowners continue their support, keeping many working day after day. Philanthropy from the targeted tax group is in the millions every year, giving to our schools, charities and hospitals through the Hawaii Community Foundation, the Hualalai Ohana Foundation, the Kukio Community Fund and others.
The message being sent by our mayor and others is they are not important since they cannot vote. Approximately 70% of the property tax for our county comes from these west-side engines of commerce, our elected officials need to wake up and embrace, not shun these jewels of our economy. The county council needs to hear from everyone that killing the luxury home goose is wrong.
Breed the goose, don’t kill it.
Scott Nair
Kailua-Kona
Tourism potential Trojan horse
Mahalo to Tina Owens and others for their out-of-the-box ideas of how our county might reopen safely, including inventive ways to improve the economy while not endangering island residents with a new, and possibly worse, COVID-19 outbreak.
The pandemic is causing untold challenges for residents, but many say they’re enjoying the diminished amount of vehicles and clamor for space that seemed near crescendo before the virus lockdown, and they’re open to trying new ways of keeping the economy afloat without killing the Golden Goose.
Many of those residents are also dependent upon tourism to some degree: small business owners, resort employees, vacation rental owners, etc., but not one has told me they’re looking forward to tourism resuming while virus numbers continue to skyrocket outside the state — an unfathomable 95,500-plus U.S. souls lost in just over two months as of this writing. Many residents are fearful of the ramifications of a poorly-planned reopening that doesn’t include strict guidelines and penalties for those who ignore social distancing, post-travel quarantine, and other measures crucial to protecting residents from virus exposure. Nor do they seem to be looking forward to jammed roadways, beaches and other public spaces. So, as much as our island may need tourism to survive, many consider it a top priority to be able to live in safe, healthy communities where lockdown and overuse of infrastructure and natural resources aren’t parts of an inevitable future.
Until simple, quick-response virus testing is widely available, it might be better to keep the relatively healthy island “bubble” we’re currently in than to open our borders prematurely. Meanwhile, residents can take Owens’ and other suggestions for bolstering our local economy, including taking “stay-cations,” buying local produce, and shopping locally instead of online. And with this opportunity to rejuvenate ourselves in our less crowded public spaces, we might want to consider sharing our manao with local officials about how we might create vibrant, safe island communities that aren’t overloaded or lost to the needs and numbers of off-island visitors.
Janice Palma-Glennie
Kailua-Kona
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