Property taxes in Hawai'i. Taxes period.
I agree with these letter writers complaining about the soaring property taxes in Hawai'i. Since last year the property taxes on the property that I own in Hawai'i has doubled! (Yeah... fuck man!) Anyway for once I TOTALLY agree with others who wrote these letters lol That is... I don't care what race, religion, creed, national origin, etc they are. Taxes are too damned high! Here they are:
Lowering property tax is the fair solution
Mayor Hannemann wants to give residents a "fair and equitable" property tax break. Any tax relief other than a reduction of the property tax rate will be unfair and inequitable to some segment of residents. The simple, fair and equitable solution is to lower the rate!
Richard Y. Will
Honolulu
Homeowners need relief from soaring tax
My wife and I are retired government employees, who have lived in our home in Moanalua Gardens for the last 40 years.
We just received our 2005-2006 real property tax bill, which shows an additional 27 percent increase over last year's 43 percent increase. That's an 82 percent increase over the last two years. Is this because of the surge in the real estate market? Should we pray for the bubble to burst so we can have our taxes lowered?
Mr. Mayor and City Council members, please help, help, help. We are being taxed to death.
Stanley Wong
Honolulu
Property tax proposal doesn't make sense
I have been waiting for some time for word from the City Council about how it would address the problem of increased property tax assessments.
The story carried in the July 27 Star-Bulletin is not the word or the relief I had hoped to see from the City Council. Under Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi's proposal my property taxes would quadruple rather than go down. Gross income for my household is around $50,000 a year. My home is 50-plus years old. Kobayashi needs to explain how she figures $2,000 a year is a fair property tax for a home as old as this one.
The other aspect of this plan that should immediately turn anyone off is that it is income- based so it becomes more of an income tax collected by the city rather than a fair assessment of your property's value.
The only thing that needs to be corrected in the current plan is how the city relates sales in the current hot real estate market to the value of existing homes. All too often they are comparing apples to oranges rather than differentiating between the two. If that is too big of a task for the city to undertake, then the Council can simply roll back the rates. Maybe the Council could take a look at the measure that the citizens of Kauai voted for recently.
The first look at property tax reform is a scary look and doesn't bode well for property owners in this county.
Bill Nelson
Haleiwa
Seen at http://starbulletin.com/2005/08/01/editorial/index.html
Lowering property tax is the fair solution
Mayor Hannemann wants to give residents a "fair and equitable" property tax break. Any tax relief other than a reduction of the property tax rate will be unfair and inequitable to some segment of residents. The simple, fair and equitable solution is to lower the rate!
Richard Y. Will
Honolulu
Homeowners need relief from soaring tax
My wife and I are retired government employees, who have lived in our home in Moanalua Gardens for the last 40 years.
We just received our 2005-2006 real property tax bill, which shows an additional 27 percent increase over last year's 43 percent increase. That's an 82 percent increase over the last two years. Is this because of the surge in the real estate market? Should we pray for the bubble to burst so we can have our taxes lowered?
Mr. Mayor and City Council members, please help, help, help. We are being taxed to death.
Stanley Wong
Honolulu
Property tax proposal doesn't make sense
I have been waiting for some time for word from the City Council about how it would address the problem of increased property tax assessments.
The story carried in the July 27 Star-Bulletin is not the word or the relief I had hoped to see from the City Council. Under Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi's proposal my property taxes would quadruple rather than go down. Gross income for my household is around $50,000 a year. My home is 50-plus years old. Kobayashi needs to explain how she figures $2,000 a year is a fair property tax for a home as old as this one.
The other aspect of this plan that should immediately turn anyone off is that it is income- based so it becomes more of an income tax collected by the city rather than a fair assessment of your property's value.
The only thing that needs to be corrected in the current plan is how the city relates sales in the current hot real estate market to the value of existing homes. All too often they are comparing apples to oranges rather than differentiating between the two. If that is too big of a task for the city to undertake, then the Council can simply roll back the rates. Maybe the Council could take a look at the measure that the citizens of Kauai voted for recently.
The first look at property tax reform is a scary look and doesn't bode well for property owners in this county.
Bill Nelson
Haleiwa
Seen at http://starbulletin.com/2005/08/01/editorial/index.html