LIHUE — County residents can give their two cents on four bills seeking to generate more money for county services and reallocate future tax revenues Wednesday. Of those four proposals which will go before the County Council, three were pitched
LIHUE — County residents can give their two cents on four bills seeking to generate more money for county services and reallocate future tax revenues Wednesday.
Of those four proposals which will go before the County Council, three were pitched by Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr.’s administration this year and range from increasing landfill tipping fees to modifying county tax allocations for open space projects.
Tipping fees
Two bills in particular, bills 2515 and 2542, deal specifically with raising the county’s non-residential tipping fees at all county landfills, refuse transfer stations and debris recycling stations.
The difference between the bills, however, is how much the increase could be.
If passed, Bill 2515 would raise non-residential tipping fees immediately from $90 to $129 per ton for municipal solid waste. Bill 2542, meanwhile, would raise those same tipping fees from $90 to $119 per ton beginning on July 1.
Some county officials say the bills will incentivize private haulers to divert matter from the Kekaha landfill and help offset a projected deficit in the solid waste fund.
Businesses owners, however, say the proposal is happening at a bad time when the economy is still recovering and could force them to pass the new costs on to their customers.
Bill 2515 is scheduled for final consideration by the County Council on Wednesday, while Bill 2542 is on deck for a public hearing at the same meeting.
Vehicle weight
Another proposal pitched by Carvalho in his budget message this year, Bill 2543, is also on the County Council’s public hearings agenda.
If passed, the bill would raise the county’s motor vehicle weight tax from $0.0125 to $0.02 for passenger vehicles and $0.025 to $0.03 for commercial vehicles beginning on Jan. 1.
These would raise the taxes on an average compact car from around $50 to $80 and average sedan from around $62.50 to $100.
The increase, Carvalho wrote, would bring the Kauai up to par with motor vehicles weight taxes charged by other counties.
“This change still keeps us below rates presently charged on Oahu and Maui and will provide a little more than $2 million in additional revenues to the highway fund annually,” Carvalho wrote.
Public access
The last bill up for a public hearing during Wednesday’s meeting is Bill 2541, which would modify the county’s real property tax allocations to the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation Fund.
That fund, overseen by a county commission using the fund’s name, receives 1.5 percent of all certified real property taxes collected each year, amounting to nearly $1.4 million last year.
Those funds are used to acquire lands or property for specific conservation efforts recommended by the commission and approved by the County Council.
But Bill 2541, some say, would lower that by establishing a funding range that could be as low as 0.5 percent.
The change, Carvalho wrote, is being made to build up the county’s reserve fund for future emergencies to an amount equal to the county’s average operating costs for a two-month period.
A cut could cost public access nearly $850,000 a year.
The council meeting starts at 8:30 a.m. in the Historic County Building. Public testimony can also be sent to counciltestimony@kauai.gov.
