The county of Honolulu in Hawaii has a new property tax cap law due to go into effect on July 1.
The law will limit the residential real property tax for an owner whose income is $50,000 or less per year at 4 percent of the income. The salary ceiling applies to combined incomes if there is more than one titleholder.
While we'd like to see the income level a bit higher and indexed in some fashion, we think this at least addresses the regressive nature and the "ability to pay" issues which make property taxes inherently unfair. In fact, why limit the income at all? It is sort of self limiting anyway in that at a certain point your taxes would NEVER be more that 4 percent of your income.
The law will limit the residential real property tax for an owner whose income is $50,000 or less per year at 4 percent of the income. The salary ceiling applies to combined incomes if there is more than one titleholder.
While we'd like to see the income level a bit higher and indexed in some fashion, we think this at least addresses the regressive nature and the "ability to pay" issues which make property taxes inherently unfair. In fact, why limit the income at all? It is sort of self limiting anyway in that at a certain point your taxes would NEVER be more that 4 percent of your income.
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