Six members of the City Council have introduced legislation that would change the property tax break given to owners of historic homes.

The proposed ordinance was introduced in response to Star-Advertiser stories revealing significant gaps in oversight of the taxpayer-subsidized program.

Most homeowners getting the break pay only $300 a year in property taxes, saving thousands of dollars annually.

The idea behind the program is to give owners of historic homes a financial incentive to preserve their properties, helping to stabilize Oahu’s neighborhoods and to retain structures important to Hawaii’s architectural past.

The city has said that monitoring of the tax-exemption program has loosened over the years because of a lack of resources.

Councilman Romy Cachola, the bill’s main sponsor, said he would like to see the program changed to generate more revenue for monitoring and to bring more fairness and equity to it.

"(Homeowners) are just getting the tax break year in and year out, and there’s no enforcement of the requirements on why they’re getting these big tax breaks," Cachola said.

The proposed measure would change the tax break to an as-yet unspecified level or base the amount on a percentage, also unspecified, of the property’s fair market value. The measure is scheduled to be discussed for the first time at tomorrow’s Council meeting.

Mayor Peter Carlisle, who took office yesterday, said he has "genuine concerns" about oversight of the exemption program. Asked whether he thought the program should be investigated, he replied, "Absolutely and unequivocally."

Carlisle said he wants to determine whether the program still works and whether all homeowners are complying with the requirements.

The Star-Advertiser investigation showed many owners falling short on a requirement that they provide the public with reasonable visual access to the dwellings. Based on a visual check of about 100 homes, the newspaper found more than 20 that were hidden or largely hidden from public view because of high perimeter walls, heavy vegetation, other structures or the topography of the neighborhood.

It also found that the city did not verify the homeowners’ certifications that the pre-exemption level of taxation was a "material factor" threatening the existence of the homes.

Public records show that many of the 240 exempted homes are owned by corporate executives, lawyers, physicians, architects and others in well-paying professions, raising questions about whether the pre-exemption taxes imposed such a financial burden.

Many owners of the higher-end exempted homes also own other properties on Oahu, according to city records.

Cachola said he introduced Bill 55 and a resolution urging the city to enforce the visual-access requirement after reading the Star-Advertiser stories. He said the need to examine fairness and equity is especially important in light of the city’s recent property tax re-classifications that resulted in the quadrupling of rates for some homeowners in Kalihi and elsewhere.

In response to the Star-Advertiser’s historic-homes stories, the city has said it will reinspect the 240 properties to ensure compliance.