Posted on: Wednesday, January 16, 2002

No property tax hike, says City Council chief

By Robbie Dingeman
Advertiser City Hall Writer

Honolulu City Council Chairman Jon Yoshimura yesterday said the City Council will not approve any increase in real property tax rates this year.

Harris must send his proposed budget to the council in March. Worries about a slump in the economy that followed the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks have city officials looking closely at spending and revenue.

City officials sent out real property tax assessment notices last month that showed the property values that city officials have estimated for some 260,000 homes. The notices included estimated taxes for the properties if the rates stay the same.

A number of people have complained that the values listed for their homes have shot up even for those who have not made improvements to their properties or noticed big increases in sale prices for homes in their neighborhoods.

Assessors have said the increased values reflect a real estate market that has posted higher prices over the past year after a decade of declines and stability.

Yoshimura said that he believes many homeowners will see some increase that is tied to the real estate market. "Property values across O'ahu have gone up maybe, on the average, 3 to 5 percent," he said.

"Quite a few people may have their property tax bills going up because their properties have increased in value, but the percentage increase for the vast majority of folks is very small," Yoshimura said.

He said some landowners have seen large increases and probably will have filed appeals by yesterday's deadline.

Council budget chairman Steve Holmes said that for most of the 1990s, the value of properties islandwide dropped dramatically. "Because we did not adjust the rates for many of those years, homeowners saw a dramatic drop in the amount of taxes that they actually paid out," Holmes said.

About a third of the city's budget comes from real property tax revenues each year.