If I have time,I will attend.
The subject matter of vacation rentals would be my purpose.
Cynthia Thielen backs getting rid of all of them and is pushing the City Council to do so.
I know there are some property's that should be closed and used for housing but a Beach Front home is not 'affordable housing".
There should be proper permitting and oversight to be insure visitors enjoy their stay in a safe and proper home with out disturbing neighbors.
Most owners are now paying their GET and TAT taxes (study done by State of Hawaii) and proper management would make them all pay.
After all, we have no other "product" here in Hawaii other than tourism.
We need these places for tourist's as well as locals.
And how many of you enjoyed a beach house for a "Stay-Cation" or acquired one for visiting family?
It is said that there are some 3,000 such property's on the island and by HTB research, they provide 15%-20% of tourism occupancy.
Shutting them down would mean a 15%-20% cut in GET and TAT as well as visitor spending.
This is in the Millions of dollars each.
What tourism shop, restaurant or Mom and Pop can take a 15%-20% client loss like that?
They did this in Maui a few years back and reversed it because the island took such a hit in state, county and business loss.
The loss for us would mean increased taxes to make up the difference.
They already extended the raise in GET (GET pays for Rail).
Most of these homes also employ 2-3 people for management, cleaning, landscape maintenance etc...
That's un-employing some 5,000- to 6,000 people, Hawaii's biggest lay off ever,.
Myself and Rockette included.
