Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 8, Number 4, 1 April 1991 — OHA Chair Keale says homestead land tax unfair [ARTICLE]

OHA Chair Keale says homestead land tax unfair

Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) Chairman Moses K. Keale, Sr. congratulated Maui Mayor Linda Crockett Lingle on her proposal to eliminate real property taxes for Hawaiians living on Hawaiian Home Lands. Lingle's recommendation is part of her 1991-92 budget whieh also includes a real property tax reduction for all Maui residents. Keale said, "Mayor Lingle's action is a recognition that Department of Hawaiian Home Lands (DHHL) lessees can't buy their land, can't sell it or encumber it, have no equity in it, but are forced to pay taxes on the so-called fair market value of the land."

Keale said the unfairness of the tax was underscored by United States Senator Daniel K. Inouye during his 1989 oversight hearings on the administration of Native Hawaiian Home Lands. Keale quoted from the transcript of the Maui session of those hearings. Inouye said: "On the outskirts of Kaunakakai, there is a hotel condominium development called the Molokai Shores. Right next to that is a homestead, Hawaiian Homestead land. Before the Molokai Shores was developed, the homestead leaseholder paid $99 a year to Maui County for real property tax. When the development was eompleted, this tax, real property tax on the leasehold, went up to over $1,000 a year. "Now, I ean understand if it were not leasehold, because then there is a potential market to build condominiums there, or hotels. But this leaseholder cannot sell that lease, he cannot mortgage, continued page 2

Homestead Tax I /rom page 1 I

he cannot develop a hotel unless the Commission ■ (DHHL) says okay, and I do not think the ■ Commission will." fl Keale said Inouye's comments dramatize a ■ problem faced by homesteaders throughout I Hawai'i. He praised Mayor Lingle for her recogni- 9 tion of the basic inequity of the present tax fl structure and called on the mayors of all counties 'l to follow Lingle's example. ||

Keale said OHA will be working to achieve the I elimination of this discriminatory tax statewide. B In addition to heading the Office of Hawaiian I Affairs, Keale also serves as president of the Ana- ■ hola Hawaiian Homes Farmers' Association and is II Kaua'i ahupua'a chairman for the State Council of ■ Hawaiian Homestead Associations. I