Big Island firm pays for bureaucratic blunder
By Kevin Dayton
Advertiser Big Island Bureau
HILO, Hawai'i — W.H. Shipman Limited President Bobby Cooper has a state bureaucracy story that can top most others.
Years after the state filed to condemn Shipman land to build the new Kea'au High School and the busy Kea'au Bypass Highway, the paperwork stalled at various state agencies, sticking Shipman with the county tax bills for the property under both the school and the road.
So far Cooper estimates Shipman has paid $15,000 in taxes to the county for land being used by the state. Shipman is a major Big Island landowner, and owns about 17,000 acres in Puna.
State officials are promising Shipman will get its money back, but the years of delay left Cooper frustrated with the way state agencies sometimes do business.
"I think it's getting worse," Cooper said. "I just think that it wasn't on somebody's front burner. I don't think they intentionally didn't do it, I just think they forgot about it, and the squeaky wheel wasn't making any noise. So, I began to be the squeaky wheel."
The 2.3-mile Kea'au Bypass Road is the main highway serving the rapidly growing communities of Lower Puna, and is traveled by thousands of motorists each day.
Scott Ishikawa, spokesman for the state Department of Transportation, said the state went to court in 1999 to condemn and take control of the 50 acres of Shipman lands that were developed into the roadway.
Normally the state files a "certificate of deposit and possession" with the county in such cases, which notifies county officials to stop charging property taxes because the state has taken control of the land.
"Apparently somebody on our side forgot to file it," Ishikawa said, and the state did not learn of the problem until March. He said a certificate has since been filed, and said Shipman is now eligible for a property tax refund dating back to 1999.
The state is now preparing a Land Court petition to formally transfer title to the land from Shipman to the state, Ishikawa said.
The state also condemned the 60 acres under Kea'au High School in 1998, but once again has been unable to complete the Land Court transfer of title from Shipman to the state for that property.
Dede Mamiya, land division administrator for the state Department of Land and Natural Resources, said the school was developed according to a site master plan by the state Department of Accounting and General Services.
The problem is the master plan put the school driveway at a point on the state roadway that had not been approved by the state Department of Transportation.
Until that problem is sorted out, Mamiya said the state cannot get the Land Court to transfer title from Shipman to the state.
"I know one of their frustrations has been the tax bills, and so we've contacted the county about how to handle that," Mamiya said. She said her department will write to the county to ask that the county stop the billing, and said the state will see to it that Shipman recovers the taxes it paid for the land while the state was using it.
"We are trying our hardest to bring this to resolution as soon as possible," Mamiya said.
The school opened in 1999, and now has about 925 students, according to the state Department of Education.
Reach Kevin Dayton at kdayton@honoluluadvertiser.com or (808) 935-3916.
