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Gathering Place
David H. Rolf |
Flat-rate vehicle tax best
for consumers, taxpayersYour Dec. 18 editorial, "Council put city at risk by bungling police funding," is a peevish obloquy that degrades. Please be more careful in your headline word choice when such serious matters are at hand.
Quite the opposite of bungling was the case. The City Council's actions should have been lauded. The members voted to defer the weight tax increase out of consideration for concerns raised by citizens, including auto dealers who have endured unnecessary legal hassles because of the complex weight tax computation system that is found only in Hawaii. Dealers suggested that the Council defer the tax and use the opportunity to convert the complex county weight tax into a simple flat tax similar to other auto registration systems around the nation.
Extensive research on other states was presented by the auto dealers, and the Council wisely paused to consider the concerns expressed on behalf of thousands of motorists in their Council districts who unnecessarily must experience delays in auto registrations because of an antiquated taxing method of multiplying a hundredths-of-a-penny tax rate times a vehicle's exact weight in pounds, adding in the pound weight of liquids in the vehicle (curb weight is an additional 100 pounds for cars and 200 pounds for trucks) and first rounding shipping pounds to the nearest 10 pounds based on the city's rounding system. Complicating the calculations further, auto manufacturers frequently fail to send the city the exact vehicle base weights on a timely basis.
A flat vehicle weight tax would be easy to administer and far better for everyone in Hawaii.
Alabama, for example, provides that for each vehicle under 5,000 pounds, the flat fee is $80 for a motorist to register.
If a $60 flat fee were adopted in Hawaii when the Council reconsiders Bill 69, then $32,719,380 would be raised from the weight tax on Oahu's 545,323 vehicles compared to the $26,323,000 in City and County of Honolulu weight tax revenues during the fiscal year ended June 30, 2002. This would raise an additional $6.4 million -- enough revenue to cover the $5.8 million additional funding needed for the police officers' raises in their new contract.
The Council's Bill 69 proposes to raise the weight tax on passenger vehicles to 2 cents per pound. On an average 3,000-pound vehicle, the amount conveniently comes out to $60.
The Council was proved wise to defer the vehicle weight tax increase. We've now learned that increased property values and assessed valuations will lead to windfall increases in city tax revenues next year. Using the opportunity to switch now to a simpler $60 flat-fee vehicle weight tax will have made the Council's earlier decision to defer Bill 69 one of their wisest.
David H. Rolf is executive director of the Hawaii Automobile Dealers Association.