LIHU’E – A proposal to raise “beautification fees” from $2 to $5 to help pay for the junked car problem on Kaua`i garnered some protest at this week’s County Council meeting. The suggested fee hike – collected when a motor
LIHU’E – A proposal to raise “beautification fees” from $2 to $5 to help pay
for the junked car problem on Kaua`i garnered some protest at this week’s
County Council meeting.
The suggested fee hike – collected when a motor
vehicle is registered, according to Councilman Jimmy Tokioka – brought would-be
council member Roger Ridgley out of his seat in the audience
Wednesday.
Ridgley, who has attended council meetings regularly this summer
since announcing his primary election candidacy, knows about cars. He owns a
towing service based in Kapa`a.
“Why is this coming out of our tax money?”
Ridgley asked, noting there is already a $100 fine for failing to notify
authorities when junking a vehicle.
“Why do I have to pay more taxes when
the law (already on the books) is not being enforced? Why must the people pay
this additional fee?” Ridgley inquired.
Councilman Billy Swain replied that
the $100 fee “goes to the state. We don’t get any of that. The state wants
counties to become self-sufficient. We have to beg in order to get anything
from the state.”
Swain, who served two years in the Legislature, continued,
“The governor and others have started to chip away. We’re the smallest county.
We don’t have the tax base.”
“I’m tired of paying for someone else’s
stupidity,” Ridgley persisted, to which Swain said, “You’re absolutely right.
We’ve discussed this ad nauseum over the past few years. But we have to do
something.”
The proposed boost of the beautification fee also drew
opposition from John Barretto, a former council member who is running again in
the primary election.
Barretto remembered that in 1983 he suggested adding
a $100 fee “to every new car brought onto the island” to aid in disposing
abandoned vehicles. “We would have had millions of dollars” by now, he said.
“People should not have to pay for other peoples’ mistakes.”
The proposed
new fee received a preliminary 6-0 approval by the council (Ron Kouchi, absent
during the vote, was the only council member not voting on the measure) and
will now be sent to the council’s Finance Committee for further
discussion.
After the meeting, Wally Rezentes Sr., Mayor Maryanne Kusaka’s
administrative assistant, explained why the fee increase is needed.
“First
of all, the administration went to the Legislature with a lot of suggestions,
including the one mentioned (fees on new cars). The Legislature said no,”
Rezentes explained. “We can only get what we can get. Lots of things we want to
do require legislative approval. When we couldn’t get the powers that be to
pass something along the lines of what we wanted, we did this.”
He added
that some of the fee would still go for items such as shrubbery alongside the
highway, but some of the increase would be used for removing abandoned
vehicles.
“I think everyone would agree that junked cars eliminate the
beauty of the island,” Rezentes said.
Staff writer Dennis Wilken can
be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 252) and [
HREF=”mailto:dwilken@pulitzer.net”>dwilken@pulitzer.net]
Staff
Photo by Dennis Fujimoto
