Kenoi supports GET increase

[Aaron S]

quote:

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Originally posted by Rob Tucker

The county needs to start taking care of the roads it has first.

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The maintenance and construction of new roads are two distinctly different issues. For starters, roadway maintenance is funded by fuel taxes, not via bond floats, or FHWA funds. In addition, roadway maintenance won't solve the traffic congestion issues both sides of the island are suffering through.

[Rob Tucker]

It is the Fuel Tax Revenue which is being misapplied.

It is not a complicated problem to apply a solution.

Apply a ratio of fuel tax revenue to the roads upon which the revenue is generated.

Improving roads will improve property values.

Improving property values will reward the county.

Kenoi actively opposed this.

[kalakoa]

roadway maintenance is funded by fuel taxes

Hawaii County has the lowest fuel tax and the most miles of road, so this isn't really working as designed.

roadway maintenance won't solve the traffic congestion issues

County has thus far refused to either increase road capacity or create "commercial centers" that might offload some of the congestion (eg, by keeping some traffic local). I take this to imply that traffic congestion is not considered a problem by our elected leaders.

I have a small export business that has local and off shore customers

Note that goods shipped directly to out-of-state customers are not subject to GET...

excise tax and improved RPT collections are the County's best options

Yet, somehow, County refuses to address the RPT issues. I believe the three biggest problems with RPT "fairness" are:

1. Letting large landowners elect "conservation" -- Shipman pays as little as $2/acre in some cases.

2. Granting ag exemptions where no ag activity is actually happening -- I have found vacant lots with a permanent ag exemption, taxed at a fraction of the neighboring lots.

3. When homeowner exemption exceeds the value of the property, taxes are set at a minimum $25 -- and that $25 doesn't cover the cost of collecting the money. I think the minimum should be a function of the exemptions granted -- regular "homeowner" doesn't pay less than $100, but with "disability" it can be lowered all the way to $25.

Of course, none of these reforms will solve this problem:

http://www.hawaiitribune-herald.com/news...ew-details

They don't know where the money is coming from or how it will be spent, but Council voted unanimously to approve the funding -- almost as if they're spending the GET increase before it's even ratified.

[kalakoa]

Apply a ratio of fuel tax revenue to the roads upon which the revenue is generated.

As noted earlier, "all meaningful economic activity" is focused in Hilo, which suggests that Hilo would thus be entitled to a lion's share of the FTR ... basically what we have now.

The related problem is that whether something is a "road" (and therefore entitled to funding) is subject to County's sole discretion -- example: they're repaving parts of Moho Rd in Hawaiian Acres, despite the fact that this road is neither County-owned nor does it meet the "minimum standards". (As a "non-private-road" example, consider Post Office Road in Pahoa...)

[Rob Tucker]

The county permitted the Puna subdivisions and HOVE in violation of their own development codes in place at the time. This should not prevent the allocation of FTR funds to the roads upon which those funds are generated.

[Frank]

hilopuna...mahalo for the reply. we all have a lot of skin in the game and increasing taxes of any sort doesn't warrant acknowledgement as being the only solution to our county's collecting/spending model...a definitive cost cutting/reallocation plan put forth by the county may be to much to ask for, but sure would be nice

[leilanidude]

The problem is that the current tax rates never seem to be enough. They always want more. Borrowing money to build parks that will require perpetual maintenance and extra personnel is not a good use of tax revenue.

[Anxious Messiah]

While a lot of roads here on the Big Island are less than ideal, compared to the other counties, they are stellar.

_________________________________________
Don't speak unless you can improve on the silence.

[dakine]

Lots of these references are only anecdotes and hearsay, as well as ill informed opinions about how "it should be done". Not much substance to them, probably reflecting more on the messengers than the objects of their ire.

Wow, I couldn't have said it any better.

[kalakoa]

county permitted the Puna subdivisions and HOVE in violation of their own development codes

Yet somehow this violation has never been prosecuted.

current tax rates never seem to be enough. They always want more.

By some amazing coincidence, bids for County (and State) projects always come in well above the estimate...

Borrowing money to build parks that will require perpetual maintenance and extra personnel is not a good use of tax revenue.

Again: that's a matter of perspective -- the contractors building the parks, nurseries providing landscape stock, and the newly-hired County crews that maintain those parks probably think this is an excellent use of tax revenue.