By ERIN MILLER
By ERIN MILLER
Stephens Media
The Hawaii County Council signed off on Thursday on Mayor Billy Kenoi’s proposed operating budget for next year, but county residents get another chance to weigh in on proposed tax and fee increases.
On Tuesday, the council’s Finance Committee picks up Kenoi’s recommended increases to the vehicle weight tax, minimum vehicle tax and yearly registration fee. Bill 85 raises the vehicle weight tax from 0.75 cents per pound of vehicle to 1.25 cents per pound for noncommercial vehicles and passenger-carrying vehicles, such as buses, and from 2 cents to 2.5 cents per pound for trucks and nonpassenger commercial vehicles.
The minimum tax will go from $6 to $12, and the county’s annual registration fee will go from $5 to $12.
The Finance Committee will meet at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday at the West Hawaii Civic Center. County officials estimated the increases will range from $24.70 to $176.70 annually, depending on the vehicle. This would be the first county rate increase since 2004.
Kona Councilman Dru Kanuha said Friday he hadn’t yet seen the finished bill, but said he generally supports the increase because the county has not raised fees in nearly a decade and Hawaii County now has the lowest vehicle fees in the state. Kenoi’s proposal brings the county’s fees in line with Kauai County’s, which has the next lowest fees.
South Kona/Ka‘u Councilwoman Brenda Ford said she hadn’t made up her mind yet how she’ll vote on those fees, but said she was inclined to support the request.
On Wednesday, the full council will consider a measure that will increase bus fares by $1, doubling the rate for regular riders to $2 and ending free rides for students, seniors and people with disabilities. The Finance Committee waived the measure, Bill 86. Once approved, the fare increases would take effect July 1. The council convenes at 9 a.m. Wednesday at the West Hawaii Civic Center.
Ford said she didn’t support the bus far increase.
“We’re trying to get more people on the buses,” she said.
Kanuha said he did support the fare hike, and said doing so might lead to more ridership.
“I would hope that with the increases, we can create more routes,” Kanuha said. “It’s important that we get more of the transit stops and open it more to the general public.”
Paying $2 to ride a county bus from Ka‘u to South Kohala is still a good deal, he added.
The council is also slated to vote on several measures confirming the county’s commitment to honoring the recently completed bargaining agreement with the Hawaii Government Employees Association and the United Public Workers unions.
Measures to finish up the budget process aren’t the only items on the schedule this week. Ford introduced Bill 87, which would amend the county’s zoning code to permit composting and mulching operations on agriculturally zoned land. She called the law limiting mulching and composting to industrial zoned property archaic.
Opening ag land for those purposes will give farmers a new potential income source, selling compost or mulch. Keeping green waste in the area in which it was created can help limit the spread of invasive species too, Ford said.
“At least it’s somewhat contained,” Ford said. “We are spreading this stuff” by moving green waste from one district to another.
Former Councilwoman Brittany Smart, who now works for Big Island Eko Systems, a company specializing in composting, said the measure would help people in that industry but would be even more beneficial to island residents.
“Who it really benefits are all the neighborhood communities who don’t have any place to take green waste,” Smart said Friday. “There isn’t any place to take it.”
Right now, if one person rents a chipper to chip green waste on his property, the county’s zoning code prohibits him from chipping material for his neighbors, Smart said. The green waste is a resource for farmers, and leaving it on the property from which it is trimmed can help keep water in the land, she said.
Allowing for composting and mulching operations on ag land may also reduce the amount of green waste taken to the county’s landfills and, in doing so, cut back on trucking and transportation costs, Smart said.
“It will save a ton of money” both for individuals and the county, she added.
The county spends a significant amount of money on landfill maintenance even after landfills close, Smart said. Decomposing green waste can create some of the gases that lead to landfill fires, and decreasing the amount of green waste can limit the exposure to that kind of risk, she said.
Email Erin Miller at emiller@westhawaiitoday.com.