Posted on: Tuesday, July 20, 2004
Property tax rises for most
By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer
New and heftier property tax bills are on the way, and even if yours gets lost in the mail you still have to pay up.
Tax rates per $1,000 of assessed value, per property category, are: Questions? People with questions about their tax bills should call the city's Treasury Division at 523-4856. The city will start sending out annual tax bills today to thousands of property owners and mortgagers, who have until Aug. 23 to pay.
Not all owners will receive a bill directly, since some pay their taxes in conjunction with their mortgages, city spokeswoman Carol Costa said. About 128,000 bills will be sent, she said.
Even if the bill fails to arrive, owners or other responsible parties must pay by Aug. 23, Costa said. And if you've filed an appeal, you must still pay the tax while it's in dispute.
"Nonreceipt of tax bills will not exempt them from the deadline, and will not excuse them from being charged a late penalty of 10 percent plus interest," she said.
Overall, O'ahu property values were assessed at $110.4 billion this year, a 16 percent increase over last year's value of $95.1 billion. The rate increase for commercial, industrial and hotel properties is expected to generate an additional $13.5 million.
Residential property values increased an average of 17.2 percent for single-family homes and 16.8 percent for condominiums. Assessed values of commercial properties increased by an average of 4.6 percent and industrial properties by 5.3 percent. Hotel and resort values dipped an average of 0.3 percent.
City Council Chairman Donovan Dela Cruz said it would have been impractical to lower tax rates this year to offset the increased valuations.
"We needed the money to balance the budget, or the option was to cut services," he said. "The feedback the council got was that people didn't want to cut services the communities depend on."
Two councilmen, Charles Djou and Mike Gabbard, voted against the tax rates.
Property owners filed 3,837 appeals of their assessments this year before the January deadline, up from 2,590 last year, Costa said. Volunteer appeals review boards hear about 50 cases per week.
Assessments are based on property sales and were prepared late last year amid a booming market. The median price for single-family homes at the end of September was $392,500, compared with $335,000 for all of 2002. Condominiums also sold higher, with a median of $175,000 for last year, compared with $152,000 in 2002.
O'ahu's real-estate boom has driven assessed values steadily skyward, so taxes on most properties will increase this year. The City Council also approved a 7 percent tax rate increase for commercial, industrial and hotel properties.
Tax rates
