Land's assessed valuation increase

[Hotzcatz]

I think you can also dedicate parts of your land to various things such as conservation or forest and they will tax that at a lower rate. I'm not sure, but I saw something along those lines somewhere.

[pam jones]

Perhaps we should declare ourselves organic wormfarmers (lol Mella) or something? I've heard of people in another state who had one cow on their property and paid something ridiculous like $2.00 total tax. Obviously if everyone did something like that there wouldn't be anything because the govt. would go bankrupt BUTTT, if the big boys can get away w/ a little creative taxation, why shouldn't the average home/land owner? It would seem that the powers that be found a golden opportunity with this land rush and super inflated prices and went with it so that their war chest would be spilling over. Honestly makes you wonder. One, yes ONE, mayor for the whole darn island, no mail service, garbage pick-up or decent paved roads where I live or bought. Sidewalks and street lights are a distant memory and not likely something we will have in many neighborhoods over here. If the monies don't improve the schools, streets and neighborhoods in general I would expect that our local government should have a lot of explaining to do. Granted it has been a cake walk tax wise for the longest but it is very frightening to see how much of an increase our elected officials can impose from one year to the next; what't to stop them from doing the exact same thing next year? Double, triple, how high can it go? Food for thought and that's enough to make me want to go hungry!! Good night and pardon the overused phrase of late, GOOD LUCK!! pj



Edited by - pam jones on 03/22/2006 03:13:10

[David D]

Hawaii County property taxes do NOT go to schools. Hawaii schools are funded through the state. Also Hawaii County has the highest property tax rate in the entire state.
Carey brought this up (and a very good point it is!): why is the tax rate the same for ag & conservation land as industrial, commercial, & hotel/resort? This makes absolutely no sense to me.

David D

[JerryCarr]

The beauty of all this, from the standpoint of the politicians and County bureaucrats, is that they had to IMPOSE nothing. All they had to do was sit back and let speculative property values to the job for them. They can technically say that they did not raise taxes, while realizing the windfall. The question for me at this point is two-fold. First, will the people not demand relief and let the County get away with this? Second, if the County does get to keep all the money, will those of us in "substandard" subdivisions see any real improvement in services and infrastructure? Excuse me for being so cynical, but I have watched these jokers for a long time. And, yes, I do vote and send letters to my elected representatives at all levels of government.

[Carey]

Cathy, I know other counties, in other states do offer lower tax rates for land that is set up & conforms to certain conservation standards (our last property in Illinois had a conservation easement that we established for wildlife migration to a stream, and had a wildlife exemption, for that portion of property, on our valuation). In looking at the property tax web page, I noticed that conservation lands were taxed at the highest rate, so it may be detrimental in this county to establish. Without a re-evaluation of your property value, you would end up paying more taxes for your conservation lands than your residential lands!
Aloha, Carey

[John S. Rabi]

I can't help but laugh! One of my properties is classified as "Improved Residential" but it does not have county water (and of course no sewer either!) and it is on a dirt road! The Assessor valued it 25% more than the average sales price was in the subdivision ALL last year. I guess he/she is predicting an improving market.

Aloha,
John S. Rabi, ABR,CM,CRB,FHS,PB,RB
http://www.JohnRabi.com
Typically Tropical Properties
75-5870 Walua Road, Suite 101
Kailua-Kona, HI 96740
(808)327-3185

[Kapohocat]

Call me a crumudgeon but the taxes here in Hi County are about the lowest around EVEN with the taxes going up based on the new assessments. Did any of y'all complain went they went down in the 90's????

I think not. And a lot of the blame can be focused on speculative market that seemed to cause an upward spiral of great proportions.

I suggest you build, live in the house and take the homeowners exemption.

[leilaniguy]

My homes assessed market valuation went from $86,500 last year to $130,000 this year, a real shock until I read the bottom line: With the homeowner exemtion, the taxable value went from $21,200 up to $23,000. My annual property tax here is only about 10% of what I used to pay in Oregon.

[JerryCarr]

Aloha Kapohocat. I agree with you that the taxes on the BI are among the lowest around (as long as you live in your house,) and strongly agree that the speculative run-up in real estate values is the real culprit. Being an owner occupant, I have taken all the exemptions and will have no problem paying the bill. There are some people, however, mainly working families, who either will be hard pressed to pay the new assessments on their homes, or will be pushed out of the rental market when landlords pass along the hefty increases on non-exempt properties. Also there are retirees whose budgets will be busted by all this. I guess I would feel better about this issue if we had some clear idea about what the County will do with the money. There are a lot of infrastructure improvements needed in Puna and other areas that might make it all worth it, if they do it right. BTW I don't think you are a curmudgeon.

Jerry

[Hotzcatz]

Aloha Puna Folks,

The tax rates might be the same - per $1,000 - for the various types of property, however, because of the classifications, the various types are valued differently.

One acre of commercial property would go for $500,000 and pay the taxes on that amount, while the same acre if it was agricultural would be valued at $100,000 and pay taxes on that amount. Same tax rate, but different valuation. Lands put into conservation have a really high tax rate, but an extremely low valuation since you can't build on them. The end result is less (almost no) taxes even though they have the "highest" tax rate. (If you want to build later, I think you have to pay all the back taxes, too.) It is very confusing.

On a personal side, the tax we will pay this year didn't change much at all from last year's tax, but we have the homeowner exemption and live here. I think that makes most of the difference. I don't remember how many years ago it was (but it wasn't that long ago) that they decided to have a minimum tax rate of $50 per lot no matter what since many folks were paying less than that. Those were mostly for the vacant land lots in the big Puna subs.

There seems to be a theme of organizing to protest, sue, etc. as well as to demand more infrastructure. I'm not sure if either of those would be a good thing. No need to group together to protest, our local government is easy enough to influence, go find your council member and have a discussion with her or him. Or go to the County meetings in Hilo. They are open to the public and you can join right in if you want. (Hey, free entertainment, as well!) Better yet, run for a council seat. Then YOU can be the government. (Plus get paid for it.) There are loads of area meetings you can attend to let your government officials know your thoughts. We had one yesterday for folks along this coast. Why waste time protesting when you can join in and help with solutions?

The other "infrastructure" theme might need a bit of thought before jumping in and muddying up the water. We are rural and we should try to stay that way. There are enough big cities folks can live in if they want so we don't need to change our ruralness. What "infrastructures" do we really need and is the County the right folks to discuss it with? There are private trash folks who you can contract with to pick up trash. (Or start your own business!). If you want sidewalks, wouldn't it be easier and more appropriate to discuss it with your local subdivision group or the Pahoa Town group? County sewers would require a hefty assessment to install them as well as a monthly payment to pay for continued service. Would it be worth it? Once your septic or cesspool is installed, that is certainly less expensive to maintain. There is a private water company for parts of Nanawale, are there others? Electric, mail, cell phones and cable are all private companies and not in the kuleana of the County.

Also, on an island, WE are the government. If there is a problem, WE should be part of the solution. There is no THEY - it is just all us folks. If we hui together it should be for a positive reason (new sidewalks in our neighborhood, a new park, new community sculpture, etc.) We would get a lot better results that way. If you have a complaint, go to the office creating the difficulty and try to resolve it there without a lot of fuss. Generally, when a lot of fuss is made, it gets really messy and the end compromise doesn't please everyone. (JMHO)

A hui hou,
Cathy