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Kauai’s newspaper, The Garden Island, has posted a story “Legal funds approved for Ohana Kauai battle.”  The appeal, summarized in the story, was argued in February 2007, and is awaiting a decision from the Supreme Court of Hawaii.

Ohana Kauai, a citizens group, helped put thetax relief measure on the November 2004 General Election ballot becauseit felt property tax reform was needed in light of skyrocketingassessments and huge county budgets.

The measure passed with 75 percent of the voters in support of it.

Asubsequent charter amendment proposed lowering homeowner property taxesto 1998 levels and limiting yearly increases to 2 percent.

Butthe county challenged the measure’s validity, questioning whether theamendment should be able to override the county’s state-approved taxingauthority.

Attorneys for Ohana Kauai said citizens also have that right, by law.

In order to prevent the amendment from taking effect, the county attorney filed a lawsuit against the…

Continue Reading ▪ Kauai Official: “The lawsuit was set up to get a court determination on the ballot issue” — More on Kauai’s Property Tax Charter Amendment Appeal

calreview

California Political Review has posted an op-ed about the Kauai real property tax appeal, currently awaiting a decision by the Hawaii Supreme Court.

Californians will recall that Proposition 13, with its promise of relief from crushing property taxation, was opposed by most of the state’s political establishment. Even after its approval by voters at the polls, various forces fought a rearguard campaign against full implementation.

But no strategy to undercut tax-limitation in California has been quite so brazen as what has happened in Hawaii, where local government officials on one island have actually sued themselves in an audacious effort to smother a voter-approved measure to aid hard-pressed homeowners. It is a reminder of how creative government can be when bureaucrats see their self-interest at risk. Government officials on the Island of Kauai evidently think the amount of property tax homeowners pay is a decision too important to be trusted…

Continue Reading ▪ Government’s Creative Assault on Property Tax Relief

The recording of the Feb. 15, 2007 oral arguments in County of Kauai ex rel. Nakazawa v. Baptiste, the appeal challenging the “Kauai v. Kauai” intragovernmental lawsuit involving 2004’s Ohana Kauai property tax Charter Amendment is now available, in three parts:

Summaries of the arguments here and here (Hawaii Public Radio report).

    
Continue Reading ▪ Oral Arguments in Kauai Property Tax Appeal (mp3)

A letter to the editor of the Honolulu Advertiser (scroll down to “Analysis of Prop. 13’s Effect Missed the Mark”) by the president of the Howard Jarvis Taxpayer Association correcting the article Echoes of California’s Prop. 13 in Kauai’s tax case:

California is still a high tax state — we rank sixth in per capita taxation — but by making taxes predictable, Proposition 13 provides to all homeowners the security of knowing their future tax liability, which allows them to budget accordingly.
    
Continue Reading ▪ Correcting Misperceptions of Prop 13

The Advertiser’s Jerry Burris writes Echoes of California’s Prop. 13 in Kauai tax case with thoughts about the County of Kauai ex rel. Nakazawa v. Baptiste appeal:

There are some interesting legal niceties in this case that will become fodder for law school classes for years to come.

The first is the oddity that the complainant in this case is the County of Kaua’i, which effectively sued itself to block implementation of the charter amendment. County officials argued that the budgetmaking process would be in chaos if property tax collections (which provide the lion’s share of the budget) were arbitrarily limited. Pacific Legal Foundation lawyers essentially said, come on, county lawyers should be defending this new law, not attacking it.

The other legal complexity is that there is confusion about who is “the county” when it comes to deciding how property taxes should be imposed. Is it the council and…

Continue Reading ▪ Echoes in Kauai Tax Appeal

More reports on yesterday’s HAWSCT arguments in County of Kauai ex rel. Nakazawa v. Baptiste, the appeal challenging the “Kauai v. Kauai” intragovernmental challenge to 2004’s Ohana Kauai property tax Charter Amendment.

   Continue Reading ▪ More on Supreme Court Property Tax Arguments

The Supreme Court of Hawaii heard arguments today in the appeal involving 2004’s property tax Charter Amendment from Kauai.  Details of the case and issue here.

Coverage of today’s arguments:

Past coverage of the appeal:

   
Continue Reading ▪ Supreme Court of Hawaii Hears Property Tax Arguments