Farmer Sherwood Conant of Kilauea, who has endured two hurricanes, numerous insect pests, crop theft, marketing glitches, foreign countries unwilling to accept Kaua‘i-grown produce and numerous other problems that would have moved a lesser man into the visitor industry, now
Farmer Sherwood Conant of Kilauea, who has endured two hurricanes, numerous insect pests, crop theft, marketing glitches, foreign countries unwilling to accept Kaua‘i-grown produce and numerous other problems that would have moved a lesser man into the visitor industry, now faces another foe more stubborn than all those listed here.
Escalating real property taxes that have forced him to put up for sale his 12-acre farm.
“My dream was always to be a homestead farmer. My dream is just up in smoke,” said Conant, 53.
So, the land he and his partner bought for $10,000 an acre, the land he has worked to grow watermelons, bananas, hydroponic tomatoes, bell peppers, and many other crops, is up for sale.
And Conant is looking for a job to support his family.
Sales of nearby properties have pushed the value of his land skyward, so that his current county tax bill is around $4,200, with $3,000 or more of that for a residential-zoned, 6,000-square-foot lot within the 12 acres that he had planned to use for the family home on the farm.
That dream, too, is dissolving. The 6,000-square-foot lot with no building on it is now assessed for taxation purposes at $528,000, based on “fair-market value” and what the property would be worth if it had a home on it.
He tried working with the system, dedicating his parcel to agricultural homestead use, then county officials took away the designation. An agricultural tax rollback was also eliminated. He tried to reduce his tax liability by re-dedicating his land to agricultural use (after all, he is a lifelong farmer, and planned to continue farming throughout his life), from 2000 to 2010, to get out from under that prohibitive residential tax liability.
So far, that hasn’t helped. He told his wife they’d have to sell and get out, and that’s what they’re doing. Along the way, he’ll have to take another hit for not abiding by the 10-year agricultural dedication should he sell to someone not interested in farming the land.
“Fair market value isn’t fair,” he bemoaned. “We’re forced out. You’ve got so-called ‘gentleman farmers’ and real farmers, and you need to discriminate in favor of real farmers, and not against them,” he said.
“People across the island have sold and gotten out,” and he thinks something of a taxpayer rebellion may be brewing because county leaders have not offered quick, concrete tax reform for long-time residents.
“Bra, nobody’s supporting farming. If they (county leaders) really wanted to support farming, they would, or could,” he continued. County Department of Water and Board of Water Supply officials deciding to roughly double the cost of agricultural water didn’t help, either, he noted.
“It’s due for a reform. The only thing I can do is sell,” and he doesn’t want to. He was hoping to grow old on his land, and have something to pass on to his children. And what’s happening to him is happening to a lot of local people in Kilauea, Hanalei and Ha‘ena, and other areas of the island, he said.
“I’ve had theft on the farm. If I can’t live there, what can I do?” he asked. “Where are our kids going to live? This is going to be the death nail for homestead farming.” This nation was founded on tax reform, and people will begin pushing for real reform soon, he predicted.
Members of the County Council have not offered real reform, Conant feels.
While he has received sympathetic responses from some in the county Department of Finance Real Property Assessment Division, all he could do is laugh when it was his turn to go before the county Board of Review that hears appeals of real-property taxes and assessments.
After members of the board basically espoused the party line that if you can’t afford the taxes, sell your land, he knew his pleading for a revised assessment was going to be in vain. The fair-market-value defense works every time. “You can’t fight what the system is,” or the reality that sales of properties near his on Kauapea Road have pushed the value of his land skyward.
And even though he knows he can get big money for his property, it will cost big money to purchase another place. “It’s a wash, basically, if you have to move. The value is high, but what can you buy?”
Paul C. Curtis, associate editor, may be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 224) or pcurtis@pulitzer.net.
