- Court backs county in ‘ohana case – The Garden Island’s report:
The Hawai‘i Supreme Court has invalidated a voter-approved charter amendment its proponents say was intended to save millions in tax bills for thousands of property owners who own their homes and live in them.
In an Aug. 6 ruling, the court permitted the county to file a lawsuit to prevent Mayor Bryan Baptiste, then-finance director Michael Tresler and the Kaua‘i County Council from implementing the Ohana Kaua‘i measure, which was approved in the November 2004 General Election.
The court also ruled the charter amendment violated a provision of the Hawai‘i Constitution that gives exclusively taxing authority to the county councils from each island.
But Ohana Kaua‘i won on one count — that its measure didn’t violate the county charter, as contended by the county.
- HawaiiReporter’s take on the decision:
Pacific Legal Foundation Managing Attorney Robert Thomas presented oral arguments in County of Kauai v. Baptiste on Feb. 15, asking the Hawaii Supreme Court to support a Kauai taxpayer-driven county amendment that rolls back island property taxes to 1998 rates and caps the annual property tax hike at 2 percent.
Five months later on Aug. 6, 2007, 3 of 5 justices in a majority report authored by Chief Justice Ronald Moon, ruled against the Kauai taxpayers.
But it was how the chief justice went about crafting his 70-page majority decision that has Justice Simeon R. Acoba, Jr., and Justice James E. Duffy, Jr. peeved and engaged in a harsh exchange of words with Moon over what they are calling an “unwise and dangerous precedent.”
- State’s top court throws out Kauai taxpayer challenge in the Honolulu Advertiser:
The Hawai’i Supreme Court has ruled that the state constitution prevents residents of a county from changing property tax policy through the ballot box.
The court ruled that the “‘Ohana Kaua’i” charter amendment approved by Kaua’i voters in 2004 was invalid. The court said in its decision that the state constitution delegates property taxation authority to the county government, not to the people.
“This decision says that it is government officials who have the exclusive say on property taxes, not the people who pay them,” said Robert Thomas, attorney with the Pacific Legal Foundation, which represented ‘Ohana Kaua’i leaders Gordon G. Smith, Walter S. Lewis, Monroe F. Richman, and Ming Fang.