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http://www.westhawaiitoday.com/news/loca...exemptions
It's mildly encouraging to see County attempt to address this problem ... even if they're bringing out the tired old excuses.
With 10,765 parcels in the program, there simply isn't enough staff to inspect the properties annually, said Real Property Tax Administrator Stan Sitko.
County is known to have expensive software that analyzes aerial photos to discover new unpermitted construction. I find it difficult to believe that the software and/or photos couldn't be used to settle obvious claims -- an orchard, greenhouses, or pasture are fairly obvious when viewed from above.
"I think there should be flexibility," Ilagan said. "We don't want to price our farmers out of farming."
Non-sequitir: legitimate farmers wouldn't lose their exemption...
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Just to clarify, this isn't about the ag zoning we have in most/all of Puna, it's a special program farmers apply for.
><(((*< ... ><(("< ... ><('< ... >o>
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Real-world example: 3 acre ag-zoned lot in Waiakea Homesteads:
Full assessed value: $178500; tax = $1651.
With dedicated ag exemption: valued at $9000 for tax purposes; tax = $100.
(Dedicated exemption value is 50% of the formulated rate; so a non-dedicated exemption for this property would probably be $18000 valuation, with tax remaining at $100.)
I've driven by this lot; it's vacant and overgrown (except where someone has string-trimmed around the For Sale sign), there is no "ag" happening, which suggests that County (that is to say, "we the people") is being "cheated" out of $1551/year.
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From kalakoa: "I've driven by this lot; it's vacant and overgrown (except where someone has string-trimmed around the For Sale sign), there is no "ag" happening, which suggests that County (that is to say, "we the people") is being "cheated" out of $1551/year."
Since we all know that most county enforcement of this sort is "complaint driven," why don't you do us all a favor, look up the Tax ID, and call the appropriate authority. I'm not being sarcastic here, but would really like to know what, if anything, they would do. I have a lot of cynical thoughts about any action taken being dependent on who the owner is and not what the law says, but I could be wrong. I've been wrong before.
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Man, complaint driven enforcement vs property tax cheats. Bad all the way around!
Anyway, most of us have strawberry guava orchards whether we want them or not. Now where do I sign up for that exemption?
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why don't you do us all a favor, look up the Tax ID, and call the appropriate authority
This example recently changed owners and thereby lost its exemption.
any action taken being dependent on who the owner is and not what the law says
I further assume this applies equally to the complainant, so would need to hire a lawyer to act as mouthpiece before attempting to take any action.
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The government computer systems here become pretty funny once you realize what is going on. All these networked systems require IT administrators and techs. Nobody on the island knows how to do those jobs. There are computer science grads from UHH but almost all leave to get jobs or advanced education from the mainland. Plus IT and admin are krap jobs and paid a lot less here than the mainland. The effect of this is IT and admin are contracted out to the mainland. And there are a steady stream of people in IT and admin that step off the plane and decide they are going to live here (they think). This makes every iteration of computers systems totally dependent on companies and contracts that can change in an instant. The result is one wave of computer systems in the state of the art at the time including software gets put in, the contract support switches hands a dozen times, no funding gets requested, there they sit, old systems going tick-tock. Its hilarious and pathetically sad at the same time.
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
*Japanese tourist on bus through Pahoa, "Is this still America?*
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We started the AG exemption process for our farm and discovered the resident owner-occupied home exemption was a better value. Then again, we're not trying to cheat the system.
