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I agree that more police would be nice...
I also think we may have to revisit the tax revenue issues...
This county collects a very low property tax... the rate is 10x LESS than the previous county I lived in.... and provides a lot of services that are usually under a city government.... without the added city tax....
I also have a question... How many of you have looked at what your neighbors pay in property tax??? you may be surprised at what is being paid by many of the long time residents.... (very many of our neighbors pay under $100 / year..... & this is not a 'cheap housing' area...)
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Carey...I believe you hit the nail on the head. The reason we have very little public services is because we don't pay for them. Our taxes (with the 40% discount for local residents) are so low compared to other parts of the island, that it seriously affects not only public services but county representation. Puna could have a million people...but if the taxes are still the same....we would still have only 4 policemen.
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Is it that the taxes are low or the assessed valuations low? Yes, I have noticed taxes in Puna are way to low to support a typical urban infrastricture. The taxes on my land are higher than some million dollar homes north of Hilo. This is totally unimproved land, just forest zoned ag20. My taxes are eight times higher than comparable land a mile down the road.
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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The tax rate for resident homeowners with the homeowners exemption is low (this is not available for vacant land) - 10x less that we paid for the same RHO at the last home we owned.
Assesments have been very slow to catch up to the recent market for RHO, so off island owers are getting more realistic assesments, as are recent purchasers... There are many homes that have not seen much reassesment valuation since the mid 90's... an increase that should be very gradual in an area that has had sudden property value inflations
Add to that, the tax moritorium for seniors (even if the rest of the family lives in the home & is listed on the tax records...) and you can get incredibly low taxes -
I will state that I cannot understand a $50 property tax for a 3-4 bedroom home in a fairly well off area when there are 2 working adults living at the home & listed on the tax records... I do see a need for a way to assess this type of situation. (not sure I even understand the under $100 taxes for these homes, but definately not for the ones that have working adults in them!)
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Raising taxes for a population that is already financially stressed won't do much to lower crime rates.
How many of you have Community Watch in your neighborhoods? If you don't have it, why don't you? That does a lot to help the police, drastically lowers the crime rate in your neighborhood and is something you can do right now to help.
Back in the late '80's and early '90's Hawaiian Acres had a crime wave of hundreds of break-ins each month. They put in an active Community Watch and the break-ins went down to less than five each month. The police had time to take care of the five, they couldn't handle the hundreds. I don't know the current state of the Hawaiian Acres Community Watch, but it worked great before (and it probably is still working, but I haven't been there for a long time to know) and it will work in other areas as well.
Community Watch not only solves the problems but it keeps our property taxes low enough that folks won't turn to crime to pay them.
"I like yard sales," he said. "All true survivalists like yard sales."
Kurt Wilson
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Raising resident homeowner property taxes in the current economic environment would be a hardship for many families. Equitable distribution of currently available funding for police would be a good start. Police personnel and other resources should be distributed across the island on a per capita basis, not on the basis of traditional power centers or which areas pay the most property taxes. The courts have ruled many times that it is not legal for counties, cities, school districts, and even states to allocate fewer resources to areas of lower property values. Somehow, that seems to be happening here.
The Neighborhood Watch concept is proven to reduce crime. Our block here in HPP is joining this program, and the Bear and I will be oriented next Saturday for participation, as will several neighbors. We have been fortunate to have only one burglary on our block in the past year, but we want to keep things that way and also deal with illegal dumping and ATV use. No matter how good the Neighborhood Watch, however, things can happen. That's why we need adequate police protection in addition to community prevention measures.
Cheers,
Jerry
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Just remember all the police really do is take notes and deal with the problem after it happens....
Neighborhood Watch volunteers live there and want to make sure the problems don't happen.
Texan Moving to Puna on July 3rd 2008.
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I do not believe that America is better than everybody else...
America "IS" everybody else.
The Wilder Side Of Hawaii
Part of the problems with neighborhood watches, is that many neighborhoods in Puna are literally 20 - 30 miles in distance.
Another problem, is that many houses are built off the roads and are not visible by the road. Therefor if someone was in the process of burglarizing one of these many houses... the neighborhood watch wouldn't even know if something was going on at one of the houses in the neighborhood.
Also, considering that the starting wages of police here are very low, it doesn't make for an attractive position to some who might think about being a cop on the island.
Also, cops that may want to move here from the mainland, start back at ground zero in the pay scale despite the fact they may have served as a police officer for many years in their home state.
Also, many mainland police departments are actively recruiting Hawaii Police officers to work in the mainland at much more lucrative wages and benefits.
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It is the way... the way it is.
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...and that's why we all have effing dogs.
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