Public testifiers ask Maui County committee to expand disability relief, ease appeals and change assessments

At a Sept. 16, 2025 meeting of the Maui County Council Special Committee on Real Property Tax Reform, public testifiers urged the committee to expand disability exemptions, ease appeal deadlines for property-classification errors and change how taxable values are calculated.

The testimony came during the committee’s first meeting, which opened in the council chamber and online. Several speakers singled out Bill 113 as time-sensitive and urged changes to circuit-breaker and exemption rules for kupuna and disabled residents.

Rob Bentz, who identified himself as “a disabled farmer here in Kula,” asked the committee to consider “more expanded tax breaks or streamlining the taxes for the severely disabled or the totally disabled,” noting the current disability tax exemption covers $25,000 of assessed value. He also urged extending circuit-breaker-style relief now aimed at kupuna to people who are severely or totally disabled.

Tom Crowley, who said he submitted written testimony to the committee, recommended several structural changes. Crowley urged giving the Real Property Tax Board of Appeals broader authority to grant exemptions when applicants missed a deadline; he argued that the county should consider moving from a one-year-sales-based assessment to a three-year rolling average to blunt sudden spikes in assessed values. Crowley also detailed problems caused by tax-classification lag, saying owners can remain taxed at an incorrect class for as long as 18 months and that, in some cases, new owners could face tax bills many times higher than homeowner rates.

Michael Williams told the committee he supported Bills 110, 111 and 114 but said Bill 113 “takes quite a bit more examination.” Williams encouraged the committee to revise qualification criteria for long-term rental exemptions and relax deadlines for appeals. He also described work with County staff and RPAD to develop a tool to estimate the fiscal effect of hypothetical changes to tier levels and rates across the 12 property classes. Williams suggested the committee take up issues specific to the Lahaina burn zone soon.

Longtime Kihei property owner Judy Allen described learning this year that her parcel had been classified as an apartment and short-term rental, which she said caused her property tax and insurance to double. Allen said she missed the Dec. 31 appeal deadline and asked the committee to consider allowing retroactive submission of documentation to demonstrate a property’s long-term rental status; she told members she has owned the Kihei property for 25 years and has not used it as a short-term rental.

Committee Chair Alice Lee noted that Bill 113 had been flagged as time-sensitive by staff. During the meeting committee members agreed, without objection, to designate Michael Williams and Tom Crowley as resources to help the committee with technical analysis and background information.

No formal votes on the substantive bills were taken during the session. Instead, the committee recessed the meeting after staff discovered a truncated hyperlink on the publicly posted agenda that prevented some members of the public from accessing the correct Teams link to testify; the recess was taken based on advice from the state Office of Information Practices (OIP). The committee plans to reconvene Sept. 17 at 1:30 p.m.

Members of the public who testified asked the committee to consider: expanding the current $25,000 disabled exemption, allowing the Real Property Tax Board of Appeals to cure missed deadlines in some cases, moving to a multi-year rolling assessment model, and permitting retroactive appeals in cases of misclassification. Committee staff were asked to collect contact information from Judy Allen so staff can follow up on her misclassification complaint.

The committee’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 17, 2025, at 1:30 p.m. in the council chamber and via the corrected Teams link to be posted on the bilingual agenda.