Mayor Harry Kim earlier this month presented a balanced budget to the County Council.
Projected revenues from property taxes, gas taxes and fees cover the $515.7 million spending plan for the fiscal year that starts July 1.
The budget is balanced without a county surcharge on the state’s general excise tax and without counting on any additional share of the state transient accommodations tax on hotels and other short-term lodging. It doesn’t rely on a property tax increase, instead taking in an additional $12.4 million from a 4.1 percent increase in property values and an extra $8.8 million in gas taxes.
That budget will be the subject of a public hearing at 5 p.m. Tuesday at the West Hawaii Civic Center, with the public also allowed to participate by videoconferencing from the Hilo council chambers.
Kim doesn’t think his preliminary budget goes far enough.
“The budget is balanced because we’re required to submit that. … How easy it is to save the agony of getting there by just maintaining,” Kim said in an interview Friday. “Nobody wants to just maintain. They want to see our county improve.”
But a maintenance budget might just be what the County Council orders. After raising property taxes and fuel taxes last year, many council members are leery of more tax hikes, especially in an election year, and want to exercise fiscal restraint.
“I appreciate and agree with Mayor Kim’s position that it doesn’t do enough,” said Finance Committee Chairwoman Maile David, who represents South Kona, Ka‘u. “However, the sense I have from the community, given increases in property and fuel taxes last year, is the county needs to tighten its belt and see how much it can do with what it has to work with until our financial situation improves.”
Kim said there are many more needs that simply won’t get funded under the current plan.
He rattles off a list of priorities, things he characterizes more as “have to have” rather than “nice to have.”
Among those are 14 new buses to bring Hele-On up to snuff, funding for a homelessness program that currently has none, 17 more police officers, including captains for every district and an additional officer per shift for Puna and Ka‘u, and more regular road maintenance.
Most of the new money in the budget— $12.7 million — is pledged for employee salaries and benefits negotiated at the state level. Salaries and wages account for more than 66 percent of the operating budget.
Kim’s been lobbying the state Legislature for a greater slice of the TAT pie, and also for an extension on the deadline for the county to enact a half-cent GET surcharge.
The TAT bill, Senate Bill 648, would add $12.1 million to Hawaii County’s share for the next 12 years, raising it this year from $19.2 million to $31.2 million. It passed its second reading on the House floor on Friday, with 43 voting yes, three of those with reservations, three voting no and five excused, according to the Legislature’s website.
The GET surcharge extension, HB 2587, also passed second reading in the House on Friday. As amended, the bill would give neighbor island counties until June 30 to enact an authorization bill, rather than the current deadline of March 31.
It would also require a minimum of 60 percent of the half-cent surcharge to be used for transportation projects, rather than the full 100 percent. And, it would allow up to 2 percent to be used for private roadways that are used by the public.
All the pieces could come together at the last minute, with the Legislature set to conclude its business May 3 and the mayor required to submit his final proposed budget by May 5. The council voted last month to postpone consideration of the GET until no later than May 5.
Kim said he’ll craft his final proposed budget with the revenues he knows are available if everything is still up in the air by then. The mayor can amend the budget throughout the year with council approval.
Kim ruled out any increase in property taxes this year, even if no new money comes in. He and the council last year raised taxes by 1 percent — hitting 10.4 percent for some classes. Rates for the homeowner and affordable rental classes were not raised.
Property taxes account for 74 percent of county revenue, he said. Adding the GET and a greater share of the TAT collected on this island would broaden the tax base and make it more fair for everyone, he said.
“We have a fantastic opportunity here to make things better and not just maintain,” Kim said.
Kim said recent research has shown visitors would pay about half of the GET, compared to earlier estimates of about a third.
David said she’s waiting to see what happens after departmental reviews scheduled for April 17-19 and council discussions.
“At that time the council will have a clearer picture of where we are financially,” David said, “and I am confident that creative and meaningful proposals will be forthcoming from my colleagues.”
Email Nancy Cook Lauer at ncook-lauer@westhawaiitoday.com.
No Harry people want efficient run government and it doesn’t always entail spending money! When will you ever learn. You need to go and have someone new bring in fresh new ideas that include efficiency and hard work while incorporating technology and enovation.
Like a serial rapist, lying Harry just can not rape his victims enough, over and over again without remorse and clearly does not care about all the lives he is destroying. The demo rats are worse than pigs at the trough.
Disgusting!
hele on is a boondoggle
Time to vote some of these “Representatives” out.
Just who are they “representing” …. besides themselves. ???
I submitted testimony to privatize Hele-on. I doubt anyone will read it.
It seems it is un-thinkable for any Democrat to change government and
make it smaller. I know the county is supposed to be non-partisan but
we all know who pulls the strings. Democrats and unions.
So apparently we have a huge housing crisis and their solution is to make felons out of those with vacation rentals. Then they get an extra $12 million and put exactly ZERO into creating affordable housing, lol! Gee maybe, it’s really an effort by the resort developers to have justification to destroy more of the endangered species capital of the country by turning sensitive coastline into mega resorts with massive pesticide leaching golf courses. Hope Kim is at least getting his cut from all this. He ought to get something for selling out this island and its people.
Scaling back on immigration until the affordable housing crisis and other strained / falling structures are under control is imperative.
This isn’t xenophobia, anti immigrant, etc, etc but a question of basic logistics.
Harry’s always singing the praises of the Big Island’s swelling numbers, while infrastructure, trash, waste management, education, transportation, housing etc continue to flounder and cannot keep pace with population growth.
Kim, Ige, Chin etc are acting on behalf of low income housing real estate developers only. (Big Banks et al)
Create the Crisis, then sell the Fix.
Maybe stop various races from procreating.
That’s the (new) American way!
“a fantastic opportunity to make things better…..”
HA!
Yes indeed, yet another fantastic opportunity, brought to us by a fantastic opportunist.
How about Hawaii County NOT fund the Honolulu County Rail?
*I cannot wait to find out how many of those roughly 100 DOJ sealed indictments for the State of Hawaii have to do with this $10Bn HNL Rail project.
And how many are for our Big Island Players…. HUD / Low Income Housing developers / managers come to mind.
Get your popcorn ready, folks. This is gonna be fantastic : )
No more tax increases and no more borrowing….period. At every turn there is a different government entity not just with their hand out, but jamming that claw into our pockets and forcibly removing.
“Most of the new money in the budget…is pledged for employee salaries and benefits negotiated at the state level.” This sentence tucked into the story is supposed to defend Harry – not his bad! The government of this state is so messed up at every level.
I thought crime was decreasing. Why would we need 17 new police officers and why especially do we need a bunch of police captain sitting behind desks? If we are going to improve this county, we have to start by getting rid of tax-happy politicians like Kim and reckless spenders like the Salary Commission. Let’s have some elections and start cleaning house.
And can we not seem like the Dukes of Hazard with cops having their own nice cars as police cars, such that they don’t want some dirty arrestee in their car so they refuse to arrest people?
HELLO, 66% of budget just to wages and retirement??? Excuse me, but that is not sustainable. Pretty soon that number will be 70, 80, 90%. What do the Big Islanders get for their buk? Nothing, except for making sure the county employees are paid until they die.
I think government officials shouldn’t have taken such a huge wage increase when money is tight. Now Mayor Kim’s implying there’s no money for improvements? I think we need to demand an annual “financial audit” so we know exactly where our tax dollars are going. If the government workers know every dime is accounted for then maybe they’ll think twice before wasting it and getting exposed. Just like OHA (Office of Hawaiian Affairs) got audited and now we know about $14 million is missing.