RECYCLING

CHRISTMAS FUND WAS INSPIRATION FOR SCOUTS

To the good people of The Advertiser Christmas Fund:

I have included a check for $101.35 from recycling redemption that my Cub Scout Webelos den from Mililani Ike collected to donate to the Christmas Fund.

We chose your fund because the boys — Sven Susag, Wyatt Pruefer, Nicholas Babcock, Sean Fitzgerald, Cody Gomez and Marc Reyes — could see tangible information on the families and their needs. We cut out several of your featured articles for the boys to read so they could see the type of help their collection could provide.

We also wanted to impress upon the boys that there was an anonymous donor who would match the first $25 of each donation. Instilling the gift of giving for the sake of giving and not getting anything in return is such an important concept for Cub Scouts and something that should be imparted to all of our youth.

Thank you for all your hard work and providing us with the opportunity to help.

PROPERTY TAXES

VACATION RENTALS ARE PUTTING ON THE SQUEEZE

The city may claim the way property values are determined is "all mathematical" ("Sticker shock," Dec. 5) but it isn't mentioning one factor in the skyrocketing prices. Neighborhoods like mine with the steepest increases are in areas where all recent purchases are turned into vacation rentals.

Buyers who snatch up homes to turn into illegal rentals have been offering more than the asking price. Laws meant to keep residential neighborhoods from competing with commercial interests are not being enforced.

Couldn't the resulting 62 percent increase in the value of our home in one year be considered criminal? The greed of real estate speculators results in the theft of our communities and our children's future.

If the city needs more money, look to those who are making all the money and start enforcing the laws already on the books.

FINANCES

PRUDENCE, PLEASE

Dear City Council, mayor, Legislature and governor:

Pay down your debt to reduce the long-term debt service cost.

PROP. 13

BEWARE PROPERTY TAX BASED ON SALES PRICE

Regarding the Dec. 24 letter "Hawai'i now needs Proposition 13": I'm not sure such a law would have the effect (of lowering taxes for all home buyers) the writer seems to think it will have.

I was in California when Proposition 13 was enacted about 25 years ago. People who had owned their homes for many years saw their taxes dramatically decrease to reflect what they had paid. The owners of a mansion in Pacific Heights in San Francisco could pay as little as $500 a year if they had purchased their house 25 years prior to enactment of the new law.

The people who were seriously affected by this bill were first-time home buyers who purchased their home after the bill took effect. A "starter" home in San Francisco is now over $600,000. Couples who are struggling just to make the mortgage payments are also facing real estate tax bills in excess of $500 a month.

And growing families who need to exchange their house, which they owned for several years, for something a little bigger may find that their new home comes with a tax bill that is five times their old one. (This happened to us when we "traded up" to a new home.)

Rising property taxes for people on fixed incomes can be a terrifying scenario. But property taxes based solely on the sales price of the house will, in the end, create as serious a problem and will be as profoundly unfair as the current system of valuing a property according to what the neighboring homes have sold for.

Think again about a "Prop. 13 type" solution to Hawai'i's real estate tax.

PROPERTY TAX

FIXED-INCOME FOLKS ARE IN TERRIBLE BIND

Our forecast property tax bill for 2006 does not reflect the true economic situation that we are faced with. It is primarily based on a runaway housing market that does not take into consideration those of us over 70 on a fixed income.

Just because the appraisal suggests that we are in the money does not pay the bills. Our taxes last year were raised 55 percent, and this new raise is closer to 62 percent. That does not match up very well with this year's 2.7 percent increase and the forecast 4.1 percent increase that Social Security pays. On top of that, a chunk of Social Security money was withheld for Medicare.

My suggestion is that we keep the faith with those who are staying in their homes and not taking advantage of the sellers' market. The City and County certainly needs to stay abreast of inflation, but this radical increase will certainly tempt City Hall to go on a spending spree.

How about doubling our exemption or raising the exemption the same amount of the tax increase?

SENIORS

RAISE EXEMPTIONS ON CITY PROPERTY TAXES

My property value went up $90,000 in one year. If I was an investor, I would be thrilled, but I am not. I plan to live where I am for many years to come.

I am lucky since I do not live on a fixed income and can go out and get a part-time job to make up the difference. The current situation that affects senior homeowners is scary because someday it may affect all of us in our golden years and we need to do something now.

I think I have a simple and easy solution to solve the property tax problem. Just update and raise the owner-occupant and age exemption from the current old rates when property was worth less.

This way, seniors who have lived in their homes for 20-plus years, live on a fixed income and do not want their current standard of living to change reap the benefits, as they should.

This way, speculators and investors would pay a bigger part of the property taxes — as they should — and it would not affect the city's main revenue source.

The city currently has something like this in place, and all it needs is to be updated to reflect current prices and cost of living. This should be easy to do instead of changing the current system.

HOLIDAY

WE SHOULD FOCUS ON TRUE MEANING OF FAITH

I always look forward to the weekly commentaries by David Shapiro, who, through his thought-provoking articles, reveals his extraordinary skill in focusing on the important issues of the day. His column "Enough of politicians hijacking religions," about the politicization of religion, hits the mark.

A postscript I would add to his commentary is that bearers of the message, whether politicians, pastors or lay persons, are all subject to human fallibility and can distort the true meaning of faith. The best gift that we can give ourselves is not to judge our faith based on the messengers but to focus with humility on the true meaning of faith and the real reason for the season we celebrate.

GRAFFITI

KEEP 'ARTISTS' AT BAY

Every morning as I drive home from work, I pass the nearly completed H-1 widening project and wonder, how much longer will that wall last without graffiti? It's been a while since a new crop showed up. To keep it that way, I suggest the Department of Transportation plant cactus or some kind of thorny bush next to the wall to keep the "artists" away.

REST IN PEACE

MANY DO NOT MAKE IT

This is to express my sympathy to the family of Army Sgt. Myla Maravillosa of Wahiawa. I was in Iraq this time last year. Yes, I made it home safely, but many of us do not, as in this case. Sgt. Maravillosa, rest in peace, your mission is accomplished.

NEW ENDANGERED SPECIES BILL WOULD AID ISLE FARMERS

Congressman Neil Abercrombie's vote in favor of the Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005 is a vote to turn the unintended conflicts with landowners and communities fostered by the original Endangered Species Act into cooperation and collaboration. His vote aims to achieve the law's original goal of recovering endangered species to healthy and sustainable populations.

With 378 listed threatened and endangered species, 127 proposed and candidate species, and 1,085 species of concern in Hawai'i, totaling 30 percent of the nation's imperiled species, we cannot afford to risk any more time before we update and modernize the ESA. According to U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service data, the ESA has achieved a less than 1 percent success rate for species recovery (10 of roughly 1,300 species).

Because many of these species are found on private lands — in Hawai'i, more than 60 percent of the total land area and 50 percent of conservation district lands are under private ownership — it is essential that private landowners cooperate and assist so we can improve the abysmal ESA success rate and ensure species' recovery.

As stewards of the land, farmers should not have to face the dilemma of choosing between the loss of the use of their property or protection of an endangered species. Greater participation by farmers and ranchers will result in more efficient and better decisions. Farmers are more than willing to help save endangered species, but they should not have to do it alone. All they ask is for some help from the public for providing the public benefit of food and habitat for species conservation.

The Threatened and Endangered Species Recovery Act of 2005 takes a giant leap forward in providing opportunities for cooperative conservation by farmers and ranchers. As a result, we will be able to protect both farmers' economic viability and endangered species.

STATE'S SURPLUS COULD DO MUCH TO HELP THE ISLANDS

The Legislature must be lusting after all the funds stacking up in the state coffers, while the governor ponders things to do with the surplus.

The governor is on the right track when she says she is looking at the needs of Hawai'i's education system — at both the Department of Education schools and the University of Hawai'i.

She has also hinted at the idea of eliminating the excise tax on food and drugs, something the Republican Party has long sought.

The governor also is looking at a tax rebate or credit of some kind.

Before any group begins to divvy up the surplus, however, it is important to understand that it is overtaxing the population that causes a surplus. It is the generation of tax revenues by government in excess of the basic needs of government.

So, instead of a refund or a rebate, perhaps a better idea would be to use the surplus to shore up Hawai'i's education system and reduce the gross excise tax, statewide, to 3.5 percent. This would do several important things.

First, it would reduce the tax burden on all of the Neighbor Islands and help stimulate their economies.

Second, on O'ahu, the tax would actually remain at 4 percent — the 3.5 percent representing the state's reduction and the half-percentage point raised by the City and County of Honolulu. In the end, however, the tax burden on O'ahu residents would not differ from what it is today.

Third, because the economy is growing, the state can expect a continuation of revenue growth, even with the reduction of a half a percentage point in the overall excise tax.

Fourth, a tax reduction would send a message to businesses and investors that the state is trying to change it's terrible business image by addressing this important aspect of doing business in Hawai'i — and, while doing so, they will actually add to the state's revenue because the tax reduction would encourage more new investment in the Islands.

For once, government could actually present business with a win-win proposition.