LIHU‘E — The county plans to allow a 90-day grace period on upcoming property tax payments in addition to temporarily waiving transaction fees payments.
By deferring the property tax payments for about three months, the deadline to pay will go from Aug. 20 to Nov. 18. After that, taxpayers will face late fees.
“From what I can tell, we can handle this from a cash flow perspective,” Finance Director Reiko Matsuyama said during Wednesday’s Kaua‘i County Council meeting.
Currently, online credit card convenience and transaction fees are waived until further notice. An extension on that, she hopes, will possibly be an incentive to pay earlier. For most people, real property taxes are established into mortgages and are taken care of through their bank.
The council approved Fiscal Year 2020-21 tax rates, which will remain flat for most residents. The county anticipates about $155,780,336 in real property tax revenue to go into the General Fund.
The only upcoming change is for high-value, residential investment properties. Taxes will go from $8.05 and to $9.40 in the upcoming fiscal year per $1,000 of assessed value. This will add about $2.3 million in revenue to be used in the housing revolving fund for houseless and affordable-housing initiatives.
The tax year beings on July 1 through June 30 of the following year. The first half tax payments are due Aug. 20, and the second half in February. Residents have until Sept. 30 to file exemption claims.
The county’s Real Property Assessment Office is still closed, but its website has an outline of COVID-19 tax relief programs, including extended tax return submittals for those with basic home exceptions to July 31. More information can be found at qpublic.net/hi/kauai/index.html.
When the council received the fiscal year 2021 supplemental budget in early May, it included about $10.7 million in cuts from the initial budget proposal in March. After one additional cut by the council, this left the county with a proposed $250,745,757 operating budget and CIP budget of $33,642,237.
Councilmembers were asked to hold off on commenting until the second and final reading of the supplemental budget at its meeting on June 3.
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Sabrina Bodon, public safety and government reporter, can be reached at 245-0441 or sbodon@thegardenisland.com.
