Open space, sports
top Apana’s list

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By Gary T. Kubota
gkubota@starbulletin.com

WAILUKU >> Maui Mayor James "Kimo" Apana says he won't be increasing property tax rates in his 2002-2003 budget, but wants to set aside 1 percent of real property tax collections for purchasing land for open space.

Apana said he also wants to establish a sports office to take care of coordinating sports events and buy land to expand recreational facilities.

The mayor made the announcement yesterday during his State of the County address before more than 700 people at the Maui Arts & Cultural Center.

Apana has proposed a Charter amendment that would require the county to set aside the 1 percent of property taxes for open space, including the purchase of parks and beach accesses. A commission is considering whether to put his proposal before voters during the general election in November.

Apana said he will be outlining in more detail his proposal for a sports office during his budget speech in March.

But he made clear his commitment to keep the annual Hula Bowl on Maui, although some questions have been raised about its future on the Valley Isle.

"The Hula Bowl belongs to Maui," Apana said.

Apana said his budget will include a new program that would allow homeowners to buy solar water-heating systems through a $2,000 county loan and about $2,000 in tax rebates and incentives from Maui Electric Co. Ltd.

While tourism has been hard hit this year by the economic downturn following the Sept. 11 attacks, the real estate market on Maui has been doing well in the last few years and widening the county tax base.

Property tax revenues have grown without property tax rate increases.

The assessed valuation for properties in Maui County increased to $16.7 billion in 2002 from $15.07 billion in 2001 and $14.04 billion in 2000.

The tax rate for homeowners is $3.63 per $1,000 valuation, the lowest in the state, according to the Apana administration.

Apana, who is running for re-election this fall, spoke about a number of programs he has supported or initiated during his first four-year term of office, including his "Tech Ready" initiative which helped to put 1,400 computers in public school classrooms in Maui County.

He said about $1 million was raised from the private sector to support developing the computer skills program.

Apana estimated that more than 2,800 households in which someone was laid off or had hours cut after Sept. 11 received $1.5 million in county voucher aid.

He said the county provided $50,000 in seed money to help the University of Hawaii bid successfully to control and manage the Maui High Performance Computing Center.

The center had been previously operated by a computing center based outside the state.