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If Senate Bill 1292, the new transient vacation rental (TVR) bill, does not include an individual increase in the property tax when a home is converted into a TVR, the public is defrauded.
As a consequence there will be a rush to acquire such property by commercial investors to create short-term, higher rental rates and reduce the available/affordable homes on the market. As a result, permanent residents would convert their homes into a business, if they wished to remain in the same neighborhood they now could no longer afford.
Thus, without a compensatory property tax on non-resident owners of TVR’s, homeowners have only negative choices: They can do nothing and stay put while the neighbors change frequently and pay a relatively lower property tax rate; or, they become landlords and live elsewhere with an augmented income managed by Airbnb.
As a result, only the rich would own housing reserves. The visitor can afford only short-term stays. Over time, we will all become renters in neighborhoods where maintenance, education and health care become less necessary because we cannot afford to live in Hawaii.
Robert Tellander
Ala Wai
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