There are a lot of good reasons to support this bill. Here are some potential points to make in your testimony. Choose the ones that resonate with you. If you are a taro farmer or consumer of poi, tell your own story. What would this tax exemption mean to you and your family? Information on where to send your testimony is included at the bottom of this post. A sample testimony to copy, edit and paste will be at the very bottom of this page.
· Taro is the most culturally significant food crop in Hawaii, a valued landscape, is recognized as the State Plant, and deserves a high level of protection to ensure it continues.
· HRS 165-3 states that the preservation and promotion of farming is declared to be in the public purpose and deserving of public support.
· Taro farm land taxes are being assessed based on adjacent million dollar homes encroaching on traditional taro growing communities resulting in higher rates of taxation for agricultural and culturally important lands.
· Farm equipment and other farm-related costs continue to rise, along with the costs of getting taro and poi to market, especially for neighbor islands.
· Most taro farmers earn far less than the low income or poverty line rates established by the state.
· The number of taro farms and total acreage statewide, as well as the sale of taro and poi, generates only a small amount of tax revenue for the state; this tax exemption would have negligible impacts on state revenues. [Use your own farm as an example if you can]
· The kuleana tax exemptions for taro lands does not address three critical issues – not all islands are covered by the kuleana taro exemption, not all taro farms are located on kuleana lands, and the ordinance does not include fallow lands as qualifying for exemption. All good farmers fallow their lands in a rotational manner to support healthy soil regeneration; especially important for small farms. To remove the chance for abuse, SB3038 prevents the exemption from being applied to fallow lands in excess of lands in taro production for each farm.
· The governor has promised to double food production by 2030; taro plays an important part in providing island-produced, high quality staple starch foods for the state. The availability and affordability of cultural foods such as taro and poi, rather than substitute foods, are a known positive factor in Native Hawaiian health.
· We are at highest risk for shortages of staple starches in Hawaii; in 2010 it was estimated we would need 30,000 acres of taro in production to meet the growing food needs and demands of the state towards a goal of food self-sufficiency.
· We have less than one week’s supply of food in the islands in a natural disaster. Root crops can survive better and recover faster than tree crops in such disasters. Oahu depends on neighbor islands to meet the majority of its taro and poi needs.
· The cost of poi (avg. $7-10 per pound retail; as high as $13 per pound) remains inaccessible to families most in need of this important staple starch food; a tax exemption for poi mills could help reduce the high cost of poi for such families.
· Tax relief would create resources to invest back into the farm, incentives for young taro farmers.
· This bill restores the intentions of a similar bill proposed in the first Hawaiian legislature in 1901 to support and encourage taro farmers who were feeding the nation.
We'd like to thank Aunty Penny Livingston of Waihee, for her due diligence in providing this information for clarity in forming our response to this bill. Please act on this bill immediately, to assure that our voices - the voice of the people is heard. We also encourage you to make a recording of your underage youth, stating why kalo is important to them. These videos can be sent directly to your representatives.
You can also email your testimony directly to your senators and representatives to make sure they hear you – but be sure to submit your testimony too, so it goes in the public record. Legislators get thousands of emails a day on bills which are screened by their staff, so put the bill number and title in the subject line and the committee hearing date and time in your email so they know what you are asking them to vote for.
Not sure who your sentators and representatives are? The same homepage link https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/ provides that information (click on ‘Legislators”), as well as who’s on what committees, and much more.
Your Senators and Representatives need to hear from you to help them make these bills a priority!
A way of life in Hawai’i, I would like to share my testimony regarding poi and its importance to myself, my family and my community at large.
While Hawai’i suffers from a poor state of affairs for its original people and residents in general, let it hereby be known that taro is the most significant plant in Hawai’i. As a Hawaiian farmer, my family cultivates taro for many reasons including its use as a primary staple of food, its recognition as the State Plant, its historical cultivation in our islands, as a direct point of relation in our family system and as accounted in the Kumulipo. HRS 165-3 states that the preservation and promotion of farming is declared to be in the public purpose and deserving of public support. Tax relief would create resources to invest back into the farm, incentives for young taro farmers.
While most small farmers earn far less than the federal guidelines of poverty, they continue to struggle to maintain their farms because taro farm land taxes are being assessed based on adjacent million dollar homes encroaching on traditional taro growing communities resulting in higher rates of taxation for agricultural and culturally important lands. Farm equipment and other farm-related costs continue to rise. The number of taro farms and total acreage statewide, as well as the sale of taro and poi, generates only a small amount of tax revenue for the state; this tax exemption would have negligible impacts on state revenues.
Kuleana tax exemptions for taro lands does not address three critical issues – not all islands are covered by the kuleana taro exemption, not all taro farms are located on kuleana lands, and the ordinance does not include fallow lands as qualifying for exemption. All good farmers fallow their lands in a rotational manner to support healthy soil regeneration; especially important for small farms. To remove the chance for abuse, SB3038 prevents the exemption from being applied to fallow lands in excess of lands in taro production for each farm.
David Ige has promised to double food production by 2030; taro plays an important part in providing island-produced, high quality staple starch foods for the state. The availability and affordability of cultural foods such as taro and poi are at highest risk for shortages of staple starches in Hawaii; in 2010 it was estimated we would need 30,000 acres of taro in production to meet the growing food needs and demands of the state towards a goal of food self-sufficiency.
· We have less than one week’s supply of food in the islands in a natural disaster. Root crops can survive better and recover faster than tree crops in such disasters. Oahu depends on neighbor islands to meet the majority of its taro and poi needs. Please join me in supporting this bill, so I can save the State of Hawai’i taxpayers from the burden of supporting our families with social welfare programs. Supporting this bill will help keep our residents home. Help us end the financial exile of our people.
Click here to submit testimony:
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=3038&year=2020
Click here to submit testimony:
https://www.capitol.hawaii.gov/measure_indiv.aspx?billtype=SB&billnumber=3038&year=2020
No comments:
Post a Comment