Mayor Alan Arakawa and Councilwoman Elle Cochran attended the recent blessing of Hawaii Escrow and Title at their new location and gave Syed Sarmad the opportunity to discuss the important role of timeshare and tourism in the Hawaiian economy.
The current property tax for timeshares assessed by Maui County is the highest of all the counties in the United States at 1.4%.
The Mayor told Syed that he is committed to encouraging more businesses to come to Maui, thus creating more sources of revenue. Two of the businesses he discussed are the Hollywood film industry and alternate fuel companies such as wind and solar. With Maui’s beautiful and dramatic topography and scenic vistas, it would seem the movie industry could be a very viable resource. As the entire world is struggling to be less dependent on oil, Maui with its endless days of sunshine and tropical breezes would be a natural for companies developing alternative fuel sources.
The shortfall in revenue is a national issue and is not unique just to Hawaii. Legislators looking for money, don’t want to tax their constituents and look for the easiest way to raise taxes and all too often, it turns out that the tourist and timeshare dollars are the easiest and quickest to collect. The people that visit Maui through timeshare and tourism don’t live here and don’t vote for the legislators. But if taxes continue to increase on the number one industry in Hawaii, which is tourism, it’s not going to be long before it will adversely affect the entire industry.
It’s time for the legislators to look for other sources of revenue than just timeshare and tourism. Mayor Arakawa appears to be on the right path in seeking out those other revenue resources for Maui.
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