Posted on: Thursday, January 23, 2003

EDITORIAL
County taxing power makes a lot of sense

While it is unlikely to happen any time soon, Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris' plea for broader county taxing authority makes good sense.

Harris asked state lawmakers to grant the counties authority to levy taxes other than the property tax, which makes up the bulk of county revenues.

It's a bit of a stretch to say, as Harris did, that using the property tax alone places an unfair burden on a minority of Honolulu's residents, since fewer than half the population owns property.

While less than half the population may own property, almost everyone pays since those taxes are built into rents and leases.

But Harris makes a good point. It should be a policy decision of the mayor and the county on how they want to apply the tax burden.

Legislators will undoubtedly resist, however. In part, this is simply their desire to hold on to whatever tax resources are out there for themselves and their own programs.

They know that the counties will inevitably be tempted to shift the tax burden from property owners (who are voters) to some form of excise or sales tax that would fall on non-voters, particularly visitors.

So while Harris' "home rule" proposal makes sense, it is unlikely to happen.

Short of that, lawmakers should give serious attention to several other ideas proposed by Harris and his fellow mayors.

One is to exempt the counties from the general excise tax for purchases made for city operations. It makes absolutely no sense to have the counties pay taxes to the state and then turn around and receive state grants or a share of the state hotel tax.

The one piece of good news for Harris and his fellow mayors is a proposal made Tuesday by Gov. Linda Lingle to turn over to the counties the money from uncontested traffic tickets. That's certainly fair, since county police are responsible to issuing traffic and parking tickets. But it's far from a slam dunk this year, because state legislators will be hard-pressed to give up the money.

Lingle also proposes allowing counties to run their own civil service systems and do their own collective bargaining, which would offer them flexibility and the potential for substantial savings. This change would be fair, but it may not be realistic to expect the state to give up the power it now holds in this area.