Aloha my Name is Dennis R DeLeon jr my grandfather is Robert M Kanuha!! And why we as kanaka who never paid tax on our land and now we have to pay land tax and this our kuleana land given from king kalakaua!! Please stop it now mahalo
Aloha Committee Chair and Council - My name is Rosemond Keanuenue Pettigrew, I live on kupuna aina on the east end of Molokai in the Ahupua'a O Aha'ino. My ohana's kuleana is to malama, to take care of the aina kupuna that goes back to ancient times as recorded in documentation from my kupuna. With the costs of real estate in Hawai'i, more development, and in some cases the inability to qualify for the traditional homeowner exemption, has made it difficult for families who have been the caretakers of their land for generations to afford the taxes. For me, the aina is my ohana as it is my connection to past and the present. It is the place where my kupuna lived and worked in ancient times, where their essence remains today. I want my children and future grandchildren to able to call our kupuna aina home for eternity. I humbly request that the Council unanimously pass this bill for the future generations of kanaka and others to hold on their ancestral lands. Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono! Mahalo nui! Loke
Aloha council, o kou inoa o Kamaulihiwa Kawaiaea. This bill is crucial to many Hawaiian ohana. If not passed basically your pushing the last of the Hawaiian ohanas out of there kupuna lands. There's been enough desecration to our family lands and too much familys struggling to hold on to there family grounds. If there's one thing that has to be said it's really Hewa, wrong to not pass this bill. Please pass the bill so that our families can have strength to survive in our home lands. Imua!✊🏾
Aloha Council members. My name is Tom Cook and I support this bill. Please make a strong statement in support of generational land stewardship, pass this legislation by a unanimous vote and quickly. Many families have been forced to sell due to ever-rising property prices by real estate speculation. Thank you for your service.
Greetings Council,
I am in support of the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29. Theses kind of bills are essential to the generations before and the future. The taxation upon those that maintain and are Hawaiʻi must be treated very different than settlers that ʻbuy propertyʻ and specifically are creating the gentrification and displacement of local residents. i am also wondering if any back taxes on ʻāina kupuna lands are honored in this to ease the burden for families that are faced with with issue? Thank you for creating this bill to help the people and protect the future from the dangers of real estate and tourist industry (that should actually be taxes far higher than currently.) Please pass this bill and continue to protect the future!!
I support the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78. I think this is a good idea to relieve the tax burden for families who have lived on ancestral lands for generations, and helps promote the continued agricultural use of these lands.
—Scott Crawford, Hana
I support the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29 that provides tax relief for lineal descents who continue to live and care for their ancestral lands. Please support the bill by passing it out of your committee. This bill is a crucial one for families like mine who have been taxed out of our ancestral lands. My kūpuna have already been forced to sell off large tracts of lands that have been in our family since the 1800s because we simply cannot afford to pay the land taxes associated with the lands that we have inherited from our kūpuna. We are kupa o ka ʻāina (natives of the land), we are not speculators. We have every intention of maintaining our connection to our ancestral lands in perpetuity; however, without a bill like this, local families like ours will be taxed out and unable to retain our lands.
I am a Maui descendant of Pikonui,
kupuna kahiko mai ka ʻaina o Kipahulu o ka makani kaʻili aloha.
I live on the island of Maui, and like my mother before me, have a fondness for our ʻaina, Wailamoa, Kipahulu.
My family continues to pay land taxes, eventually hoping one day they will return to Kipahulu.
However, due to obscene skyrocketing property values associated with property taxes, real estate, foreign investment and global demand for land in Hawaiʻi.......we are being taxed on our family land, which has not had a hale (house) on it for over 100 years, no plumbing no electricity, no road(s), no new improvements......in other words, just land, just ʻaina, ʻAina Kupuna. The ʻaina is in the same state as when it was given to my kupuna.....great-great-great grand father, great-great-grand mother, great-grand mother, grand mother, uncles and cousins.
Annually, we go to chop down the trees, clear the weeds, burn the rubbish, gather ʻaʻama (crab), heʻe (squid) ʻopihi, and leho (cowrie shells). We do this to honor those who have walked these paths and those who have lived the lives of a time gone by,.....after all, we are care takers to our ʻAina Kupuna; they are not a commodity as real estate agents or investors would otherwise have you believe.
The rape of our ʻAina Kupuna must stop, and you.....our Maui Council has the opportunity to turn the direction of this Westernized thinking; and therefore, to amend Chapter 3.48, Maui County Code, to add a section relating to taxes on parcels dedicated as ‘Aina Kūpuna. Or, have the stain of generational genocide on your conscience.
Please let your conscience and heart be your guide today, to hear our ʻAina Kupuna, to hear their voices in the wind.......
to right a wrong that will stand for generations in years to come.
The county government has benefited greatly from skyrocketing property values and associated property taxes, driven by real estate speculation, foreign investment, and the global demand for land in Hawai'i. Sadly, this surge in property values is now pushing Maui's long-time 'ohana to the brink of losing their ancestral lands, going into poverty to pay their property taxes or monetizing their ʻāina in ways that erode their character, and the overall character of Maui's unique communities. As its coffers continue to fill from the foreign desire for Maui's lands, the county must take steps to provide targeted tax relief for its long-time 'ohana, and the last living vestiges of Maui's social and cultural heritage that they embody.
The dispossession of land has deep, profound, and unique impacts on Native Hawaiians, whose health and well-being are based on their feelings for and deep attachment to the ʻāina. Other kamaʻāina who have maintained their family lands since the Great Depression are likely to have also developed a deep, familial attachment to their lands that would be devastating to lose. This bill will provide critical protections for Native Hawaiian and other ʻohana who may be forced to choose between the devastation of selling their ancestral lands, or paying tax assessments that they are increasingly unable to afford.
Land grabs and speculation by off-island investors should never lead to long-time kamaʻāina families being taxed into poverty, or off of their ancestral lands. This bill will protect Mauiʻs families and the legacy they represent, from property tax increases due to forces well beyond their control.
Therefore, I support the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29 that provides tax relief for lineal descents who continue to live and care for their ancestral lands. Please support this bill by passing it out of your committee.
Aloha,
I am a descendant of John and Kamaka Kukahiko from Makena whose graves as well as other ʻohana are still there. I was fortunate to live in Makena when I first moved to Maui in 1985. I urge you to pass ʻĀina Kupana Bill. Kēhau Luʻuwai
Aloha Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee Chair Keani N.W. Rawlins-Fernandez, and Members. My name is Leināʻala Kuloloio Vedder and I support the ʻĀina Kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29 that provides tax relief for lineal descents who continue to live and care for their ancestral lands.
As a post-missionary lineal descendent of Honuaʻula, my family have been displaced by forcing to sell our ancestral property because of land speculation, developer intimidation, and ridiculous sky-rocketed property taxes. We have other parcels that are encroached upon by future developments in Moʻoiki, Honuaʻula that have cause anxiety and financial hardship to pay property tax. The continued increase of development from Paeahu to Keoneoʻio have caused Hawaiian lineal descendants to use their ancestral lands for “commercial purposes” in order to sustain their lands and pay for the taxes and fees incurred to maintain the property and infrastructure that are assessed by an unfair formula used by the County of Maui Tax Real Property Tax Assessment Division. Therefore, there may be some lineal descendant families who may not qualify under this bill at this time. Please consider to find a way such as a temporary “limited commercial use” for those families or a moratorium of increasing their property taxes in the interim.
One point I would like to address is the political definition of “kamaʻāina”. The indigenous peoples of Hawaiʻi have been politically scrutinized of our identity for over two hundred years. Politically, Native Hawaiians are the indigenous peoples of Hawaiʻi by which we have to prove our identity by providing legal race claim documents. Is the definition of the word “kamaʻāina” a “native-born, one born in a place, a land child” according to Pukui the official definition? I would also like this committee to define who are “kamaʻāina” applicants establishing their lineal descendancy by court order to a person who held title to the property as of the date on this bill. I am confident that appropriate legal genealogy race claim documents will be used as evidence of their claim. This is necessary by not causing confusion among others who have been so privilege and not go through identity race claim verification scrutiny like “Native Hawaiians.”
I am hopeful that once this bill is passed, discussions among all stakeholders and institutions will continue to protect the inherent interests of lineal descendants on ancestral lands and our future generations of Hawaiʻi paeʻāina.
Aloha my Name is Dennis R DeLeon jr my grandfather is Robert M Kanuha!! And why we as kanaka who never paid tax on our land and now we have to pay land tax and this our kuleana land given from king kalakaua!! Please stop it now mahalo
Support!!!
I SUPPORT THIS BILL!
I support this bill!
Support
Aloha Committee Chair and Council - My name is Rosemond Keanuenue Pettigrew, I live on kupuna aina on the east end of Molokai in the Ahupua'a O Aha'ino. My ohana's kuleana is to malama, to take care of the aina kupuna that goes back to ancient times as recorded in documentation from my kupuna. With the costs of real estate in Hawai'i, more development, and in some cases the inability to qualify for the traditional homeowner exemption, has made it difficult for families who have been the caretakers of their land for generations to afford the taxes. For me, the aina is my ohana as it is my connection to past and the present. It is the place where my kupuna lived and worked in ancient times, where their essence remains today. I want my children and future grandchildren to able to call our kupuna aina home for eternity. I humbly request that the Council unanimously pass this bill for the future generations of kanaka and others to hold on their ancestral lands. Ua Mau Ke Ea O Ka Aina I Ka Pono! Mahalo nui! Loke
Aloha council, o kou inoa o Kamaulihiwa Kawaiaea. This bill is crucial to many Hawaiian ohana. If not passed basically your pushing the last of the Hawaiian ohanas out of there kupuna lands. There's been enough desecration to our family lands and too much familys struggling to hold on to there family grounds. If there's one thing that has to be said it's really Hewa, wrong to not pass this bill. Please pass the bill so that our families can have strength to survive in our home lands. Imua!✊🏾
Aloha Council members. My name is Tom Cook and I support this bill. Please make a strong statement in support of generational land stewardship, pass this legislation by a unanimous vote and quickly. Many families have been forced to sell due to ever-rising property prices by real estate speculation. Thank you for your service.
Greetings Council,
I am in support of the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29. Theses kind of bills are essential to the generations before and the future. The taxation upon those that maintain and are Hawaiʻi must be treated very different than settlers that ʻbuy propertyʻ and specifically are creating the gentrification and displacement of local residents. i am also wondering if any back taxes on ʻāina kupuna lands are honored in this to ease the burden for families that are faced with with issue? Thank you for creating this bill to help the people and protect the future from the dangers of real estate and tourist industry (that should actually be taxes far higher than currently.) Please pass this bill and continue to protect the future!!
I support this bill!!! We Hawaiians gotta stick together , before eventually other people who are not Hawaiian are gonna take over our land.
I support this bill.
I support this BFED-78 aina kupuna. Its been generation to embrace Aloha
I am in support to having this on the table to discussion
I support the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78. I think this is a good idea to relieve the tax burden for families who have lived on ancestral lands for generations, and helps promote the continued agricultural use of these lands.
—Scott Crawford, Hana
I support the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29 that provides tax relief for lineal descents who continue to live and care for their ancestral lands. Please support the bill by passing it out of your committee. This bill is a crucial one for families like mine who have been taxed out of our ancestral lands. My kūpuna have already been forced to sell off large tracts of lands that have been in our family since the 1800s because we simply cannot afford to pay the land taxes associated with the lands that we have inherited from our kūpuna. We are kupa o ka ʻāina (natives of the land), we are not speculators. We have every intention of maintaining our connection to our ancestral lands in perpetuity; however, without a bill like this, local families like ours will be taxed out and unable to retain our lands.
I am a Maui descendant of Pikonui,
kupuna kahiko mai ka ʻaina o Kipahulu o ka makani kaʻili aloha.
I live on the island of Maui, and like my mother before me, have a fondness for our ʻaina, Wailamoa, Kipahulu.
My family continues to pay land taxes, eventually hoping one day they will return to Kipahulu.
However, due to obscene skyrocketing property values associated with property taxes, real estate, foreign investment and global demand for land in Hawaiʻi.......we are being taxed on our family land, which has not had a hale (house) on it for over 100 years, no plumbing no electricity, no road(s), no new improvements......in other words, just land, just ʻaina, ʻAina Kupuna. The ʻaina is in the same state as when it was given to my kupuna.....great-great-great grand father, great-great-grand mother, great-grand mother, grand mother, uncles and cousins.
Annually, we go to chop down the trees, clear the weeds, burn the rubbish, gather ʻaʻama (crab), heʻe (squid) ʻopihi, and leho (cowrie shells). We do this to honor those who have walked these paths and those who have lived the lives of a time gone by,.....after all, we are care takers to our ʻAina Kupuna; they are not a commodity as real estate agents or investors would otherwise have you believe.
The rape of our ʻAina Kupuna must stop, and you.....our Maui Council has the opportunity to turn the direction of this Westernized thinking; and therefore, to amend Chapter 3.48, Maui County Code, to add a section relating to taxes on parcels dedicated as ‘Aina Kūpuna. Or, have the stain of generational genocide on your conscience.
Please let your conscience and heart be your guide today, to hear our ʻAina Kupuna, to hear their voices in the wind.......
to right a wrong that will stand for generations in years to come.
The county government has benefited greatly from skyrocketing property values and associated property taxes, driven by real estate speculation, foreign investment, and the global demand for land in Hawai'i. Sadly, this surge in property values is now pushing Maui's long-time 'ohana to the brink of losing their ancestral lands, going into poverty to pay their property taxes or monetizing their ʻāina in ways that erode their character, and the overall character of Maui's unique communities. As its coffers continue to fill from the foreign desire for Maui's lands, the county must take steps to provide targeted tax relief for its long-time 'ohana, and the last living vestiges of Maui's social and cultural heritage that they embody.
The dispossession of land has deep, profound, and unique impacts on Native Hawaiians, whose health and well-being are based on their feelings for and deep attachment to the ʻāina. Other kamaʻāina who have maintained their family lands since the Great Depression are likely to have also developed a deep, familial attachment to their lands that would be devastating to lose. This bill will provide critical protections for Native Hawaiian and other ʻohana who may be forced to choose between the devastation of selling their ancestral lands, or paying tax assessments that they are increasingly unable to afford.
Land grabs and speculation by off-island investors should never lead to long-time kamaʻāina families being taxed into poverty, or off of their ancestral lands. This bill will protect Mauiʻs families and the legacy they represent, from property tax increases due to forces well beyond their control.
Therefore, I support the ʻāina kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29 that provides tax relief for lineal descents who continue to live and care for their ancestral lands. Please support this bill by passing it out of your committee.
Please pass this bill. Enough of Hawaii has been given to rich Japanese tourists buying a seventh home.
Aloha,
I am a descendant of John and Kamaka Kukahiko from Makena whose graves as well as other ʻohana are still there. I was fortunate to live in Makena when I first moved to Maui in 1985. I urge you to pass ʻĀina Kupana Bill. Kēhau Luʻuwai
In support of this bill
Aloha Budget, Finance, and Economic Development Committee Chair Keani N.W. Rawlins-Fernandez, and Members. My name is Leināʻala Kuloloio Vedder and I support the ʻĀina Kūpuna bill BFED-78 CC 21-29 that provides tax relief for lineal descents who continue to live and care for their ancestral lands.
As a post-missionary lineal descendent of Honuaʻula, my family have been displaced by forcing to sell our ancestral property because of land speculation, developer intimidation, and ridiculous sky-rocketed property taxes. We have other parcels that are encroached upon by future developments in Moʻoiki, Honuaʻula that have cause anxiety and financial hardship to pay property tax. The continued increase of development from Paeahu to Keoneoʻio have caused Hawaiian lineal descendants to use their ancestral lands for “commercial purposes” in order to sustain their lands and pay for the taxes and fees incurred to maintain the property and infrastructure that are assessed by an unfair formula used by the County of Maui Tax Real Property Tax Assessment Division. Therefore, there may be some lineal descendant families who may not qualify under this bill at this time. Please consider to find a way such as a temporary “limited commercial use” for those families or a moratorium of increasing their property taxes in the interim.
One point I would like to address is the political definition of “kamaʻāina”. The indigenous peoples of Hawaiʻi have been politically scrutinized of our identity for over two hundred years. Politically, Native Hawaiians are the indigenous peoples of Hawaiʻi by which we have to prove our identity by providing legal race claim documents. Is the definition of the word “kamaʻāina” a “native-born, one born in a place, a land child” according to Pukui the official definition? I would also like this committee to define who are “kamaʻāina” applicants establishing their lineal descendancy by court order to a person who held title to the property as of the date on this bill. I am confident that appropriate legal genealogy race claim documents will be used as evidence of their claim. This is necessary by not causing confusion among others who have been so privilege and not go through identity race claim verification scrutiny like “Native Hawaiians.”
I am hopeful that once this bill is passed, discussions among all stakeholders and institutions will continue to protect the inherent interests of lineal descendants on ancestral lands and our future generations of Hawaiʻi paeʻāina.
Mahalo,
Leināʻala Kuloloio Vedder