Tax bills mean the family
cannot continue to subsidize the
native Hawaiian population
on Niihau

By Trish Moore
Star-Bulletin

LIHUE -- Helen Robinson and her sons Bruce and Keith are "seriously considering" divesting themselves of more than 45,000 acres of land in Kauai County -- including Niihau -- and starting over on the mainland.

In an interview yesterday, Keith Robinson, 56, co-heir to the lands, said $1.5 million in estate tax bills, which are expected to climb to "tens of millions" in future years, means the family cannot continue to subsidize the population of 180 native Hawaiians who live on Niihau.

He said the family's primarily agricultural and ranching operations have been "systematically destroyed" by heavy taxation and a "government hostile to private business owners."

The family owns 33 percent of Gay & Robinson Sugar Co., a share that will climb to 45 percent once estate matters are settled, Robinson said.

He wouldn't speculate how a move out of the islands might affect the sugar company.

Robinson said he and his brother Bruce have discussed transferring their business interests out of Hawaii for the past 20 years but that Moody's recent downgrading of the state's bond rating is a major signal that the economic situation here will get worse.

"We stand an excellent chance of being plundered and ruined if we remain in Hawaii," he said. "This does not mean we are going to sell Niihau tomorrow. It does not in any way imply that our commitment to the Niihau people has diminished," Robinson said.

He stressed that the family has not solicited or considered offers to purchase the island nor discussed plans with the military.

He did, however, lay out a theoretical scenario of exchanging the island for federal land of equal value in the Pacific Northwest:

"We might wind up with some real nice timberland and some nice house lots. The federal government might wind up with the island of Niihau -- theoretically."

"Theoretically, the Niihau people could qualify as a Native American tribe and have their own reservation, and the monk seals would have protection of the federal government ... (which would) own the island and be able to put their facilities there."

"The Niihau people might wind up nicely protected that way," he said.

Niihau, located 17 miles from Kauai, has been a source of controversy for the last year because

blrb The Robinsons say their operations have been 'systematically destroyed' by heavy taxation.of a Navy proposal to build missile launch facilities on the island as part of a plan to upgrade the Pacific Missile Range Facility in west Kauai.

Robinson said potential revenues from the project would not be enough to sustain operations at Niihau Ranch, which has lost money for decades and is a main source of sustenance for residents.

"We're very sad we can't do more. We'd like to do more, but the money has run out, thanks to that bloody Land Use Commission," he said.

Early in the century, the family had set aside 4,500 acres of uplands on Kauai's north shore to sell when cash was needed.

A 1960s land commission rezoned the land to conservation, stripping it of most of its value, Robinson said.

To pay estate and land taxes, the family has closed Niihau Ranch and plans to sell the helicopter used to transport residents for medical emergencies and run small-scale hunting tours.

"The Niihau people are sitting around on welfare, mostly, now," Robinson said.

"They're not in quite as disastrous a situation as other people might be if they were caught without jobs, but it's not going to be easy."

Upland sheep and cattle grazing lands on the island have been destroyed because there's been no money to pay the labor costs to make repairs.

The family's ancestors bought the island in 1864 from Kamehameha V for $10,000 in gold.