Property tax and inflation.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

I still gave him his four cents worth

Good story and definitely something to think about terracore! Now I’m wondering, did I get my 4 cents worth? I won’t spend too much time on it.



Done.
(and no, I won’t reveal my conclusion)

[ironyak]

HOTPE - Hey, how about a little service with a smile? As I suggested some years ago, maybe county workers should be paid minimum wage, and place a tip jar on the counter?
Oh no, not you too... You're complaining that some lady didn't smile enough for you while they were doing their job assisting you? You know how that sounds right? What's next - shaking a fist at a cloud? Yelling at the kids to get off the lawn? ;)

Seriously, what is going on in the Punaverse to cause all this curmudgeonly negativity and complaining about everything? Trade wind weather is back, fruits and veggies are coming in from the yard, and birds are singing to the setting sun. Maybe stop, look around, and count your blessings, as likely they are many.

[kalianna]

Our blessings are indeed many and one of our biggest blessings is aloha. Service with a smile doesnʻt have to be taken iterally.
Some of us smile more easily than others. But when you approach someone with aloha and they donʻt respond, itʻs disheartening and unprofessional. Everyone has bad days but treating people with respect is a requirement when working with the public.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

doing their job assisting you?

Actually she didn’t do her job. I was asking to use one of the public computers to look up the string of ownership on a property. She said I couldn’t do that. I told her I had before. She told me there were now privacy protocols in place. I told her I thought it was public information. She said 9/11.

Then another worker walked by, saw the confusion on my face, asked what I was trying to do, told me to click F8 or something similar, clicked it for me and I was in. Admittedly, he smiled a little.

You should have seen the look on the woman’s face when caught in her lie. 80% Death To The Taxpayer, 15% general irritation, 5% embarrassment.

Guess you had to be there.

[ironyak]

HereOnThePrimalEdge - Guess you had to be there.
Maybe, or at least be given the pertinent story details to begin with. We've gone from a worker begrudgingly shuffling her shoes to "help" you, to you not receiving service, to her having a poor attitude without enough (metaphorical) smiling, to her openly trying to thwart your attempts at gathering information. In the next version, I'd suggest instead of just her just looking with "Death To The Taxpayer" daggers at you, she throws actual daggers at you, which you dodge one, manage to snatch the other from the air and take aim, but she disappears into a smoke bomb with a cackle of glee. Or, plot twist, while you're hacking the computer, she tries to poison your martini, but you grab her wrist first, lock eyes, and embrace in a passionate kiss, fade to black, a tale of a government worker and a tax payer coming together. ;)

kalianna - Service with a smile doesnʻt have to be taken literally ... when you approach someone with aloha and they donʻt respond, itʻs disheartening and unprofessional. Everyone has bad days but treating people with respect is a requirement when working with the public.
Perhaps, but there may be some generational/age gap differences here between the "my (tax) dollars pays your salary" entitlement that terracore highlighted, and the "whatevs, it's not really a big deal" type response my kids tend to toss out when things don't go as they expected.

Personally, with things being as tough as it is, and has been, for working folk in Hawaii, I have no interest in making their day worse, especially for those having to deal with an increasingly rude and hostile public for low or minimum wages. If the forms get filed, the food shows up on the counter for pickup, things get more or less sorted, I could care less if they smile, metaphorically or not, during the process. Shit's a mess, people are struggling, I don't expect them to "be professional" and feign happiness with it all. I just try to keep an eye on the big picture, recognize my blessings, and let that which does not matter truly slide. YMMV

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

or at least be given the pertinent story details to begin with.

I was simply, and briefly, attempting to describe an unsatisfactory experience with a county worker.  Which isn”t a particularly difficult story line or unique occurrence.  It was bad enough without the details, so didn’t feel the necessity to write a novel about it.  With a dedication, a foreword, and blurb on the back.

My mother would tell me how bad the Depression was because she ate lard sandwiches and only had one pair of shoes.  But I’m sure there was more to it than that.  I got the concept and as I preferred butter on my bread with some lunch meat and she made my sandwiches, I didn’t argue the point.

Now admittedly without having been there and without all the details it may not have sounded like more than another first world problem.  And it was a first world problem, I own a home, and have money left over after buying food to pay my taxes.  But hey, we all can use a hobby after we tire of dropping our expendable income on Amazon.  And this is America, the land of the free, and home of some free time at the end of the day.  As a child I built models, now I grumble about county workers.  

Hey county politicians!  Get off my taxpayer built highway waving your election signs!

[ChunksterK]

Getting back on topic, Amrita's situation made me look into options for her. I already suggested multiple homeowner's quotes, and she can still do that. If one finds a better deal, it is always possible to cancel, get a refund for remaining term time, and move on. I do strongly suggest, however, checking out the financials, customer reviews, and other reporting about any insurance company before signing on. Also, if she can afford to cover a loss of a few thousand, setting a higher deductible can sometimes reduce premiums significantly.

As for the property tax on the vacant lots, I'll use a cliche and say that the only certainties in life are death and taxes. Selling the properties would in all likelihood lead to a capital gains tax far in excess of the property tax. Gifting the lots would incur federal income tax for the recipients for any amount over $18,000. Frau Chunkster and I put our real estate (and most other assets) into a trust that will convey them to Little Chunkchen upon our demise without going through probate, which can be expensive in Hawaii, even if you have a will.

I'm trying to stay positive here, but the tax thing is what it is. In some cases, offsetting losses and/or deductions can reduce the bite, but that isn't often the case with typical taxpayers and the amounts the lots would likely bring.

[ironyak]

HOTPE - As a child I built models, now I grumble about county workers.
Well, I guess it's better that you grumble here about them, than grumble at them. As an alternate take on the situation: indigenous folk, plantation workers, and their descendants managed to flip the script after decades of repression and exploitation and create a system of near-perpetual easy employment through harvesting the bounty from absentee land owners, tourists, retirees, and those willing to live an alternative simple lifestyle. Low input, high yield. Hard not to recognize top horticultural game, blue ribbon to them IMHO.
 
HOTPE - Hey county politicians!  Get off my taxpayer built highway waving your election signs!
You could always do a counter sign waving - a "Taxes are theft" sign in one hand, "Smile, unless you're a County worker" sign in the other. To show you're not an extremist, you could stand in the median, a moderate centrist not on one side (of the road) or the other. ;)

Chunkster - Getting back on topic...
Not a financial advisor, but OP could also consider selling one of the lots. Yes it would incur some taxes, but also a 4-5x profit it appears, which would lower her tax burden and cover both the initial tax plus many years of future tax and insurance costs, to keep the retirement in paradise going. To evoke another cliche, you can't take it with you!

[ChunksterK]

@ironyak: That's a great suggestion for Amrita! She could even invest the proceeds in something low risk and realize incremental gains that would not carry a high tax burden.

[HereOnThePrimalEdge]

Well, I guess it's better that you grumble here about them, than grumble at them.

I agree with terracore, part of a county worker’s job description is not to listen to grumbling.  Nor is mandated smiling, but neither would even come into question if and when they perform the basic services of their office.  I’m sure they are confronted with situations from time to time where someone does expect service above and beyond their duties.  In this instance, that was not the case.