The Hawaii County Council on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation providing greater flexibility in determining the share of property taxes earmarked for a popular land conservation maintenance fund.

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The Hawaii County Council on Wednesday unanimously approved legislation providing greater flexibility in determining the share of property taxes earmarked for a popular land conservation maintenance fund.

In a 9-0 vote, the council passed an amended version of Bill 165, which in its original form would have increased the annual allocation of real property tax revenue to the Public Access, Open Space and Natural Resources Preservation (PONC) Maintenance Fund from 0.25% to 0.5%.

After considering feedback offered during the bill’s first reading on June 17, Puna Councilwoman Ashley Kierkiewicz — who authored the measure — introduced an amendment abandoning the mandated tax share increase, instead opting to maintain the previous 0.25% allocation while giving council members and the finance director power to “go beyond that quarter percent if (they) see a need.”

The amendment vote was 7-2, with Kohala Councilman James Hustace and Hilo Councilwoman Jenn Kagiwada in opposition.

Kierkiewicz said the county’s murky financial future was the driving force behind the amendment.

During previous meetings, council members had expressed concern about the county’s “escalating financial obligations” over the next decade, including a $1 billion mandate for wastewater infrastructure upgrades, substantial debt servicing, public employee salary and benefit increases, and labor settlements involving pandemic-era hazard pay.

“We don’t know what the future holds in terms of economic downturns, other infrastructure projects,” she said. “There’s a lot that remains unseen in terms of our fiscal picture, but the fact of the matter is we need to preserve this program, and what we’re able to dedicate funding-wise just needs to remain flexible.”

This flexibility, she said, would allow county officials to move more money into the fund if they receive applications for greater PONC land stewardship by community members in the future.

“There is the discretion of the council and the finance director to go beyond that if we desire,” she said. “So, it preserves the quarter percent, and if we would like to put in more because there is a need by community — we hope that there is a need by community, but it has not been expressed yet — that we have the ability to do so.”

The PONC Commission is a county advisory body tasked with identifying lands for purchase and preservation using funds derived from 2% of annual property tax revenues, 0.25% of which is currently allocated to the maintenance fund. From this pool of money, community-based nonprofits can apply for grants to cover costs associated with public safety, habitat restoration and land management tasks like upkeep, feral animal control and cultural site preservation.

Bill 165 would also remove an itemized list of eligible expenses and grant award procedures from the County Charter and relocate them into the County Code. According to the legislation, this would allow for “more flexibility to fulfill the original purpose of the fund, making it easier to amend and adapt program requirements and procedures as community needs, environmental conditions, and best practices change over time.”

Since the measure calls for a change to the Charter, the proposed amendment would be put to voters on the 2026 General Election ballot. Before then, the bill needs to pass a third and final council reading.

Despite PONC’s near-universal acclaim, several testifiers spoke Wednesday before the council in opposition of the bill. These included Deborah Ward, who said she served as a PONC Commissioner representing Puna District for five years.

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Ward claimed the legislation’s removal of rules from the Charter without first adding them into County Code would strip commission control and place it in the hands of the county’s executive branch.

“Without concurrent legislation for the County Code and the maintenance fund process, and without the commission with its duties and roles in the process, this bill gives complete power for the maintenance fund to the Department of Finance and the mayor, potentially increasing the politicization of that program,” she said.

Debbie Hecht spoke to the council via Zoom and echoed Ward’s concern that the bill could undermine the original intent of putting PONC rules in the Charter in the first place: to protect them from rogue officials.

“(Rules were) placed in the Charter because the council and mayor twice … stopped deposits to the fund,” Hecht said. ”So, it was placed in the Charter so it could only be changed by a vote of the people.”

Moving this language back into the County Code, she said, would hamper transparency and public supervision of the program.

“There’s not going to be oversight at all by citizens,” she said. “More details on the accounting are also needed in the Charter amendment so citizens can watchdog this fund — how the money’s being spent, where it’s being spent, what’s the purpose.”

She suggested that pushing the bill through in time for the election this fall is reckless, and that more time is needed to get outlying county officials up to speed.

“Maybe this shouldn’t move forward,” she said. “Maybe we should delay for two more years and allow the Department of Finance staff to understand the program more fully.”

Once testimonies wrapped up, Hamakua Councilwoman Heather Kimball agreed with Kierkiewicz that it would be imprudent to lock county revenue into a program that she described as a “want and not a need.”

“When we think about the county’s kuleana — water, wastewater infrastructure, roads, bridges, culverts — and with the economic situation that may come to bear in the next couple of years, (where) we’re already seeing costs inflate, it concerns me to have more revenue constrained into special funds,” Kimball said. “I’m more comfortable with this approach where if we have it, we can do it. We all agree, I think, that we need to steward these properties, but I think it’s wise right now to proceed with a little bit of caution.”

Kierkiewicz justified moving the rules, saying that the Charter’s rigidity is preventing PONC stewards from using grant funds to pay for what they really need.

“The very prescriptive nature of the activities in the Charter has restricted various activities that our stewards want to do,” she said. “For instance, education is not something they can currently get funding for. If they want to do some kind of fundraiser on the property that allows them to raise funds to continue to support the work that they do to care for those properties, they cannot do that.

“If we leave things as is, we’re in fact hurting our stewards,” she added. “We’re in fact hurting them for another couple of years and asking them to just bite the bullet until we’re able to tackle this. Perhaps I don’t even know if anybody’s going to want to take this on in the next couple of years, but we have the opportunity to do something about it right now.”

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Email Stefan Verbano at [email protected].