Ka Wai Ola - Office of Hawaiian Affairs, Volume 23, Number 5, 1 Mei 2007 — Honolulu city eouneil passes tax break for kuleana lands [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

Honolulu city eouneil passes tax break for kuleana lands

By Sterling Kini Wnng | 'ublicatinns Editnr On April 11, the Honolulu City Council unanimously approved a bill that would allow owners of kuleana lands on O'ahu to pay the minimum eounty property tax of $100, providing much-needed relief to families facing the prospect of losing their cherished ancestral lands because of skyrocketing taxes. "We're jumping with joy," Dawn Wasson, a partial owner of her family's kuleana parcels in Lā'ie, said after the eouneil vote. The property taxes on her family's kuleana lands were running between $7,000 and $8,000 per year, she said. "The property taxes were controversial within our family. Some of us fought over who should pay for it. But now [with this tax exemption] it's such a relief," Wasson said. "The land is our connection to Akua and our kūpuna, and now we ean make sure it gets kept in the family." The bill would provide the tax break to the lineal descendants of farmers who received residential and agricultural lots, called kuleanas, from the Kingdom of Hawai'i in the 1850s through the Māhele, the historic land division that introduced private property to the islands. In all, the Hawaiian government issued 8,400 awards amounting to 28,600 acres of kuleana parcels. The kuleana parcels, usually located in rural areas, are considered to be family treasures by the Hawaiians who still own them. According to the bill, people who would benefit from the property tax break must prove that they are the lineal descendants of the original kuleana land awardee. However, the bill was amended to remove any references to Native Hawaiian heritage. Non-Hawaiians also received kuleana land awards during the 1850s. During discussions on the tax

exemption bill, several city eouneil members raised concerns about the financial impact the ordinance would have on the city. "If there were quite a bit of claims, and the amount of money we were talking about runs in the millions of dollars, how ean we revisit when we know what the financial impact will be [on the city]?" Councilmember Romy Cachola asked the bill's lead supporter, OHA Trustee Rowena Akana, during her testimony. Akana told the eouneil that few kuleana landowners responded to an ongoing survey being conducted by OHA, and that she believes that less than 25 people on O'ahu will eome

forward for the tax break. She added that most of the lands that would be eligible for the tax break are zoned as agricultural. "It's not like we're talking about a lot of money here," she said. Council members said that they would re-examine the fiscal impacts of the bill one or two years after its enactment. "I'm ecstatic," said Akana, after the eouneil passed the ordinance. "This will ensure that Hawaiian lands remain in Hawaiian hands." Akana said she now plans on introducing similar tax exemption bills into eaeh of the neighbor island county councils. □

NŪ HOU • NEWS

Dawn Wasson ond her family were paying befween $7,000 and $8,000 a year in property taxes for their Lō'ie kuleana parcels, whieh have been in their 'ohana since the 1 850s. A Honolulu City and County hill that wūs just passed will reduce the yearly taxes to $100 for the property. Photo: Sterling Kini Wong