New taxes and fees - Democrats at it again

[DTisme]

We pay less than a tenth of what we paid in Calif. for property taxes (granted, based on a house worth less), and half Calif. rate for sales tax. That's why we moved here.

[leilanidude]

quote:

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Originally posted by glinda

quote:

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Originally posted by leilanidude

Where does the blame go for Hawaii's high taxes...

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Leilanidude, that statement is seemingly an emotionally driven, and poorly educated, one. As EvilOctopus pointed out there are resources online that break down our tax rates and compare them to other states and we for the most part are slightly (-3.37%) below average. And that's here, in Hawaii, where doing anything including running a government cost more than on average. So what's your beef?

As seen on the site that EvilOctopus linked to we are the least taxed in some instances (real estate) and close to the highest in others (tobacco) but come out lower than the median overall. Certainly there's nothing that warrants bitching about. Btw the republicans (since you dragged the democrats around in the mud) have never been all that good at fiscal matters themselves. Gee, George the Second was a financial disaster! Have you considered the effect he had on us financially?

So what do you want leilanidude, a free ride? No government services at all? Chaos? What? I know.. you want America to be Great Again! Right? Oi

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HAHAHA !

I guess you don't want to mention the elephant that just left the office, leaving us with the largest deficit ever and more additional debt than any other? However, we aren't discussing national issues here. This is about this state and county.

glinda, This state and county are very poorly managed. Everyone responding to this thread knows it. Who is in office and has been the entire life span of both state and county?

People like yourself, who make excuses for this mismanagement are the problem. You would rather defend this one party show of excessive mismanagement than to admit the failure.

Comparing Hawaii property taxes to other states and then claiming, oh we're average, like that's a good thing? Look at the whole picture.

This was my point all along.
Owner occupied exemptions allowing one to pay as little as $25 is part of the problem as it forces the county to pile the taxes onto rental properties - which are mostly occupied by poorer folks. Is that fair to make the poorer folks pay for your share of property taxes that you avoid by paying as little as $25? Then the GET and possibly TAT is also applied to the rent those poorer folks pay. You want to pretend you are all for helping the poor? Then fix this obvious problem and ask that owner exemptions be the eliminated so that you can pay the same rate taxes. Maybe make homes that are rented for 1 year plus periods, have the rate you currently have?

[kalakoa]

This state and county are very poorly managed.

It would be more accurate to say that State/County aren't managed so as to benefit the constituency -- there's no shortage of money for rail on Honolulu, even though that project is now "estimated" at $11B -- double its original cost.

Owner occupied exemptions allowing one to pay as little as $25

Repeating myself here: $25 is a fair price for the services I receive from County; I would be willing to pay more for additional services.

the GET and possibly TAT is also applied to the rent those poorer folks pay

TAT only applies for rentals of 180 days or less... but agree there should be a GET exemption on rentals to residents, similar to the homeowner exemption on property taxes.

That said ... part of the "problem" is property tax exemptions for "major landowners". My $25/year works out to $8.33/acre/year; certain "major landowners" pay as little as $2/acre/year, despite that land not being "owner-occupied". Fair?

[leilanidude]

I love this quote from former state senator Sam Slom, in this article about all sorts of new taxes being proposed.

http://www.staradvertiser.com/2017/02/19...a5b0121402

“I don’t want anybody to suffer, but we have obviously overspent, wasted money, can’t account for money over the years,” he said. “It’s not a lack of revenue. It’s a lack of discipline and a lack of accountability and responsibility.”