Maui County Council hears public testimony on proposed 2025 real property tax rates

The Maui County Council held a public hearing April 22 on proposed real property tax rates for Maui County that would take effect July 1, 2025. Testimony from the hotel industry, homeowners, short-term rental operators and residents focused on how rate changes and sharply higher assessed values would affect housing affordability and local businesses.

Why it matters: The council is considering rates that will determine property tax bills across Maui County, affecting owner-occupied households, non-owner-occupied properties (including many short-term rentals) and hotels and resorts. Speakers urged the council to weigh revenue needs against widespread reports of assessment increases that, several testifiers said, have already sharply raised individual bills.

John Pele, representing the Maui Hotel and Lodging Association, urged the council to maintain the proposed hotel and resort rate at the same level as in 2025, saying the industry is still recovering. "The Maui Hotel and Lodging Association would like to say that it supports the ... proposed tax rates for hotels and resorts at the flat rate of 11 75 as it was in 02/2025," Pele said, adding that lower rates help hotels fund capital improvements and preserve jobs.

Several residents and property owners described rapidly rising assessed values and asked the council to protect owner-occupied households. Pamela Tupac urged widening owner-occupied tiers and proposed increasing the top threshold for the first owner-occupied tier to $1,500,000. She also recommended raising non-owner-occupied rates to $8 for tier 1 (up from the mayor's proposal), $12 for tier 2 and $18 for tier 3 to generate revenue for affordable housing.

"We would like tier 1 ... to be $8 ... the 1,000,000 to 3,000,000 as he proposed to be $12 ... and over 3,000,000 to be $18," Tupac said, summarizing her group's recommendations for non-owner-occupied properties.

Multiple testifiers said assessments have jumped sharply this year. Eric Pong, a resident who said his family's assessment doubled this year, testified that further rate increases would compound affordability problems: "Our assess doubled this past year, and, I think a rate hike would not help on top of assessments doubling." Tom Crowley said his assessment rose to $1.75 million and that his short-term rental income has fallen since last year's fires, arguing the council should avoid taxing homeowners out of their homes.

Gary Saldana urged the council to investigate how assessment practices drove large increases. Saldana said his assessment rose 36% in a year and that, under the mayor's proposed rates, his bill would rise roughly 46 percent. "Why are locals being penalized?" he asked, requesting a review of the Department of Finance's assessment timing and an increase in the homeowner exemption as a possible offset.

Rochelle Thompson (testifying on her own behalf) described a separate technical problem: vacant parcels in residential zones are currently taxed at the non-owner-occupied rate. Thompson said the county code, not the assessor's valuation method, needs revision to change how vacant residential land is classified for tax purposes.

One public commenter who identified with the Royal House of Hawaii raised claims about original royal patents and urged title searches under Hawaii Revised Statutes section 172-11 to locate heirs; the council did not take action on those claims during the hearing.

Council members asked clarifying questions of testifiers and acknowledged the range of concerns. Vice Chair Yugile Sugimura and other members engaged with hotel-industry testimony about disaster response and local hiring; Mayor Richard Bissen (speaking in one exchange) noted overlap with council proposals. No vote on rates occurred at the hearing; the council recessed the meeting and scheduled continued deliberation. The council closed public testimony and recessed the hearing until May 13 at 11 a.m.

The hearing record includes numerous requests for the Department of Finance and council staff to provide data: breakdowns of how many properties fall into proposed tiers, the revenue impact of alternate tier structures, and documentation explaining recent assessment increases. Council action on final rates will follow staff reports and subsequent council deliberations.