Page 4 - MidWeek Leeward - May 3, 2023

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MAY 3, 2023
Honolulu Hale is buzz- ing with activity as we approach the halfway mark in our annu- al city budget deliberations. Since March, Honolulu City Council has been carefully reviewing the proposed bud- get for the upcoming 2024 fiscal year (July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024). This includes obtaining adequate informa- tion from city departments to make appropriate amend- ments to ensure we approve a balanced budget that will support community needs and provide quality services for ‘Aiea residents and beyond.
CITY COUNCILMEMBER RADIANT CORDERO
Bills Introduced Focus On Real Property Tax
This year, a number of bills that focus on real prop- erty taxation have been intro- duced, including addressing real property tax classifica- tions and taxation as it relates to Residential A properties, and providing a one-time property tax credit to eligible homeowners, among others. You may be wondering what the difference is between the Residential and Residential A RPT classifications.
property that does not qualify for a home exemption and is valued over $1 million is clas- sified as Residential A.
1.05% of the property’s value. The Residential A classi- fication was created in 2013 (Ordinance 13-33) and be- came effective on July 1, 2014. Since that time, I have noticed that a number of our residents have purchased ad- ditional homes for their chil- dren or inherited property, which they decided to rent to our neighbors. Due to the lack of a home exemption, these properties are consid- ered Residential A and are taxed accordingly. As a result, City Council Chair Tommy Waters and I introduced Bill 25 (2023), which seeks to
exclude any residential prop- erties that are leased to resi- dents for periods of one year or longer from the Residential A class and instead have them classified as Residential, re- sulting in a lower tax rate.
determined to find ways to provide relief and assistance to residents while still ensur- ing that we have a balanced budget for our departments to carry out their business. I encourage you to participate in your local government pro- cesses. To learn more about the city’s Fiscal Year 2024 budget and the Council’s an- nual budget process, visit ho- nolulucitycouncil.org/budget.
Contact city Councilmem- ber Radiant Cordero (District 7 – ‘Aiea and Waimalu) at 808-768-5007 or rcordero@ honolulu.gov.
In short, a property that is owned and occupied by the property owner, and the own- er has a home exemption, is considered Residential. A
The Residential A clas- sification tax rate falls into two tiers. If your property is assessed at up to $1 million and you do not have a home exemption,yourpropertyfalls into Tier 1, where the tax rate applied at this tier is 0.45% of the property’s value. Howev- er, if your property value is assessed at over $1 million and you do not have a home exemption, then your proper- ty falls into Tier 2, where the tax rate applied at this tier is
If passed, this bill would al- leviate some of the tax burden for certain property owners. Additionally, we introduced Bill 26 (2023) to provide a one-time real property tax credit of $500 for eligible property owners age 65 or older. This bill came about to address the recent dramatic increases in property values.
Honolulu City Council is