“Incredibly unfair”
Recently my neighbor mentioned that his property taxes had quadrupled that year, and shortly after we saw ours doubled. This is despite a professional valuation two months ago for $ 135,000 less than what the county says.
We called and asked for information about a complaint and found out, “You can appeal, but it’s no use and the fee for a complaint is non-refundable.” What? Are you waiting for a fee to invoke your review ?!
I’ve lived in five other states and none of them charge an appeal and how incredibly unfair it is to charge a fee.
Since we were discouraged from appealing at all, there is a mindset that it’s the county road or the highway, as if we were slaves.
Hawaii is the most expensive state in the country and the extremely high tax structure is a big part of it. We all know the county needs money, but how about looking for savings elsewhere?
Why does every public project cost three times as much as it should and take three times as long? Why do we pay a general excise tax instead of a sales tax when sales tax does not apply to food or medicines – unfair to poor people!
Why are state and county employees (by far the largest group of workers in the state) paid so much, given so much free time, and then, when they retire, don’t have to pay taxes on their retirement benefits like the rest of us do? Must be nice to rid the rest of us of your tax burden.
And what we get for all that money – potholes, no recycling (on an island!) And very poor service from a lot of public employees.
We had to wait 18 months for permission while being torn around with conflicting information and apathy, costing us endless stress and heartache and several thousand extra dollars. Now we are receiving building regulations that are absurd for the tropics and offer 30% more living space in a place where there is already no affordable living space.
What’s wrong with this picture? Not enough accountability, a petrified system of government, special interests, incredible inefficiency, and so on and so forth.
What are we going to do about it? Let’s start putting your feet by the fire, Hawaii County citizens. We deserve better.
Laura Buck
volcano
Less transparent
Hawaii County’s fight against transparency continues.
The environmental management department has tightened the March director’s report. This new format contains less information.
Now a person can no longer track the rate of progress on certain projects. We cannot see how many positions are still open. This new format is less transparent than the original.
At the Environmental Management Commission meeting, the new director shared with commissioners how far the Island of Hawaii is with repairs to our sewer systems. Now everyone has to wait to speak at the meeting instead of seeing the dates on their director’s report. It comes out a few days before the meeting.
Since there are no longer any printed records, the lack of progress is incomprehensible. Now let’s look at sewage through pink lenses.
Jerry Warren
Naalehu