Obama party stays in home taxed at $300
The absentee owner of a multimillion-dollar home being used by President Barack Obama's visiting entourage gets one of the biggest residential property tax breaks on Oahu.
Kevin Comcowich, the Houston investment executive who purchased the nearly 5,000-square-foot home for $9 million in January 2008, was charged $300 in property taxes this year.
Those who get full exemptions on Oahu pay only $300 annually in property taxes — regardless of the value of the residence. The flat rate, raised from $100 last year, is believed to be one of the most generous property tax breaks for historic homes in the country.
They say the exemptions disproportionately benefit the rich and provide an excessive break, without taking into account the value of the homes, how much is spent on maintenance, whether the owners live there and whether they even need the public to subsidize their taxes.
All homeowners who seek the exemption must sign an application that certifies, among other things, that the pre-exemption level of property taxes is a "material factor" threatening the existence of the home. But the city does not check to see whether that actually is the case. Comcowich had to sign such a form.
In researching homeowners getting the breaks, Huber found many to be current or retired corporate executives, lawyers, physicians, professors and others from well-paying professions.
Some, she found, were absentee owners, like Comcowich, who rent their properties.
I guess not every one in Hawaii is proud of our President...
http://www.staradvertiser.com/news/20101227_obama_party_stays_in_home_taxed_at_300.html"The city is rubber-stamping exemptions for millionaires, while subjecting low-income residents to in-depth evaluations and scrutiny," Huber wrote in a letter to Carlisle. "This is egregious and unfair."