Mayor keeps option
of property tax hike

Council leaders say that Harris
should budget within the city's means

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By Gordon Y.K. Pang
gpang@starbulletin.com

City Council leaders are urging Mayor Jeremy Harris not to recommend raising property tax rates in the face of higher assessments.

Harris, in response, said his administration is trying to avoid needing to do that but stopped short of issuing a guarantee.

The Council has the final say on the city budget.

A proposal is sent by the mayor to the Council in March.

"We're asking the mayor to budget within our means," Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura told reporters at a news conference yesterday. "We feel that the Council will not entertain any increase in real property tax rates this year. So we're asking the mayor to take that into consideration and budget accordingly."

Yoshimura said the Council actually is prepared to reduce the rate for apartments and condominiums in an effort to achieve equality with single-family homeowners, who currently pay a lower rate.

Budget Chairman Steve Holmes said Budget Director Caroll Takahashi believes holding the line on rates "is workable."

Holmes noted, however, that outside factors may determine ultimately if rates will be raised. For instance, the Legislature could decide to cut back on the counties' share of the hotel room tax or other revenues

Harris said, "Obviously, that's been our effort all along to not raise property tax rates so we're working very hard to avoid that."

But the mayor said he can't say for sure the rates won't go up, noting that the city's share of hotel room taxes for the current year already will fall short of last year's revenues by several million dollars following the post-Sept. 11 economic downturn.

"We don't know whether we will be able to achieve (no rate increase) until we know what the revenues are and what the costs are," Harris said.

There have been a number of complaints about higher assessments this year particularly from East Honolulu and Windward neighborhoods where some have reported hikes of as much as 50 percent.

In related news, Harris told members of the House and Senate money committees yesterday that he has instructed the city Budget and Fiscal Services Department to allow those homeowners who have lost their jobs after Sept. 11 or have been called up to military service to hold off paying their second half-year property taxes until June 1 without penalty or interest.

The payments normally are due Feb. 20.

"We hope that this will provide some measure of relief to those adversely affected by these horrible events," Harris said.

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City & County of Honolulu