Council vows no
tax hikes on residencesThe city panel delivers a letter
recommending priorities for the mayor
The City Council has vowed not to raise residential property tax rates this year.
But the Council left open the possibility of hiking tax rates for commercial properties.
The Council made the pledge in a letter to Mayor Jeremy Harris, asking him to incorporate its priorities in the budget to be sent to the Council next month.
"So once they know where we're coming from, they can hopefully adopt some of these ideas and implement them in the budget that they send down," said Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz, who acknowledged that administration does not have to listen to the Council.
Mayor Jeremy Harris said: "I will be happy to hear any point of view that they have, but they need to understand that my responsibility is not to send down what I think they want. My responsibility is to send down to them what I think is responsible."
At least one business advocate said the Council and the mayor appear headed down the same path of raising commercial property tax rates. "If I were a betting man, there'd be no question in my mind that it's going to go up," Small Business Hawaii President Sam Slom said.
The letter also lists what the Council considers to be "core services." They are public safety, parks, road maintenance, sewer system, solid-waste management, transportation, upgrading city technology and water.
The Council told the mayor those services must be funded before consideration is given to other city services, but members said that does not mean other services should be axed.
Harris has not seen the letter, but from what he was told about the core services section, he said: "It doesn't look particularly well thought out. I think everything we're doing is a core service, or else we wouldn't be doing it," he said. "The service we're providing is a service that the public wants, needs or is required by law."
The Council tweaked the first draft of the letter during a public informational meeting yesterday before sending it to the mayor. And it was the debate over taxes that nearly killed the consensus -- and the letter.
Councilman Charles Djou threatened not to sign the letter if it did not include a statement saying the Council does not support any increase in real property tax rates. "I prefer it would be we are opposed to raising any taxes," he said.
Councilwoman Barbara Marshall said she preferred a stronger statement that the Council will not pass a tax rate increase for residential customers given the 17 percent rise in home assessments.
"Residentials are just getting hit so hard because property assessments have been going up so high," Marshall said.
The mayor said yesterday that his goal is not to raise the residential tax rates, "and I will work hard to make sure that that doesn't happen."
But he said the Council has to handle the budget in a responsible manner. "I would urge them to work cooperatively through a deliberative process and to remove politics from the budget deliberations this year."
Slom said higher taxes for businesses at this time would not be good.
"From the business perspective ... anything that we do to increase the cost of doing business here in the state, particularly when we're trying desperately to have an economic rebound, I think is negative and would be reviewed as so," said Slom, also a state senator.
