The following testimony was submitted by the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii for consideration by the Maui County Council on Dec. 5, 2025.
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Dec. 5, 2025, 9 a.m.
Kalana O Maui Building
To: Maui County Council
Alice Lee, Chair
Yuki Lei Sugimura, Vice Chair
From: Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
Jonathan Helton, Policy Analyst
Re: Bill 171 (2025) — A BILL EXTENDING MAUl WILDFIRES REAL PROPERTY TAX RELIEF
Aloha Chair Lee, Vice Chair Sugimura and other members of the Council,
The Grassroot Institute of Hawaii supports Bill 171, CD1 (2025), which would extend until July 1, 2028, property tax waivers for certain properties damaged or destroyed in the Aug. 8, 2023, wildfires, and make other changes.
After the wildfires, county lawmakers exempted properties destroyed in the wildfires and those that were within a red or yellow reentry zone as of Jan. 1, 2024; however, the waivers are slated to expire on July 1, 2026.
Further extending these waivers would help Lahaina homeowners and businesses afford to rebuild. If the waivers expire next year, many local property owners will face the prospect of paying taxes on land they still cannot use.
Land values are a big reason these waivers are so critical. For many Lahaina parcels, close to 70% of their pre-fire taxable value was in the land. Were that land to be taxed before they can rebuild, many owners would be paying almost their entire pre-fire tax bills on properties they could not functionally use.
For example, Fleetwood’s on Front Street paid $54,122.03 in taxes in fiscal 2023. Of the property’s $8,780,500 assessed value, $6,018,300 — 68.5% of its value — was in the land.[1] The owner has been unable to rebuild the property to date and will face a $37,000 bill if the waiver expires in 2026 and assessments remain at pre-fire levels.
Extending these waivers would come at a relatively small cost to the county. The Maui Department of Finance has estimated the current exemptions for destroyed properties and those in the yellow and red reentry zones will cost the County about $21.2 million in fiscal 2026 — equivalent to 3.2% of the roughly $660 million the county is expected to collect.[2]
Grassroot appreciates that the Special Committee on Real Property Tax Reform removed provisions of this bill that would have limited the waivers to just some of the properties makai of Honoapiʻilani Highway.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify.
Jonathan Helton
Policy Analyst
Grassroot Institute of Hawaii
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[1] Parcel no. 460090070000, County of Maui Tax Assessor’s Office, accessed Sept. 17, 2025.
[2] “Selected Real Property Statistics for Budget Consideration Fiscal Year 2025-2026,” Maui Department of Finance, Real Property Assessment Division, p. 33; and “County of Maui Real Property Tax Valuation for Fiscal Year 2025 – 2026,” Real Property Assessment Division, Honolulu Department of Budget and Fiscal Services, July 2025.
