HONOLULU — A bill that would incentivize landowners to actively farm or ranch on unused agricultural land cleared the Maui County Council last week.

“One of the biggest challenges faced by emerging farmers is access to land and water,” said council member Gabe Johnson, who introduced the bill. “Bill 103 allows the mechanism of tiered tax structures to incentivize owners of fallow ag land to give favorable leases to farmers and ranchers, contributing to food security and creating economic opportunity.”

What You Need To Know

  • Bill 103 requires the Department of Finance and the Department of Agriculture to work together to verify land dedicated to agriculture is actually being used

  • The University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization identified an abundance of highly flammable non-native grasses on unmanaged former plantation land as a root cause of the August 8 Lahaina fires

  • The council’s Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee, the Department of Finance recommended that the county be allowed to create tax tiers for all real property tax classifications, including the agricultural real property tax classification

  • The bill now heads to Maui Mayor Richard Bissen for final approval

Bill 103 also requires the Department of Finance and the Department of Agriculture to work together to verify land dedicated to agriculture is actually being used.

“After the August 8 fires, fallow agricultural land in the county is also rightly the subject of renewed concern,” said Johnson, who chairs the Agriculture, Diversification, Environment and Public Transportation Committee. “It’s always been important to ensure agricultural land is productive and supporting the people of this county with food sovereignty and jobs. But the fires made it clear that keeping agriculture land active is also important for fire safety and prevention.”

Johnson noted that the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization identified an abundance of highly flammable non-native grasses on unmanaged former plantation land as a root cause of the August 8 Lahaina fires. The Hawaii Wildfire Management Organization and the Maui County Cost of Government Commission also cited the risk posed by unmanaged agricultural land in their reports on the wildfires.

“Bill 103 is a first step to address these risks by giving the council the ability to incentivize active agriculture through taxation,” Johnson said.

At the Nov. 21 meeting of the council’s Budget, Finance and Economic Development Committee, the Department of Finance recommended that the county be allowed to create tax tiers for all real property tax classifications, including the agricultural real property tax classification. The recommendation was unanimously adopted for inclusion in the final draft of the bill.

“I fully support the progressive amendment to tier all real property tax classifications, especially after the fires, as a way to gain more revenue for our county from the highest-valued tiers,” Johnson said.

The bill now heads to Maui Mayor Richard Bissen for final approval.

Michael Tsai covers local and state politics for Spectrum News Hawaii. He can be reached at michael.tsai@charter.com.