HILO » Hawaii County agriculture advisory commissioners want more done to ensure that property tax breaks for farmers and ranchers aren’t being abused.

The county’s agricultural property assessment exemption program provides about $34 million in property tax breaks every year to farmers and ranchers. But officials say a lack of staff makes it difficult to ensure agricultural exemptions only go to those who are actually farming.

It’s not known how many of some 11,000 property owners claiming exemptions are growing crops or merely putting a few animals on the land to get tax breaks, Jeffrey Melrose, principal planner for Hilo-based Island Planning, told the Hawaii County Agriculture Advisory Commission.

"It’s a very nice program for a bona fide rancher or farmer. It really gives them a good tax break," said Real Property Assistant Administrator Michael McCall. "It’s the abusers that are basically passing the tax burden to everyone else."

Enforcement is difficult at current staffing levels, McCall said. But he noted that even when land isn’t taxed at the correct level, taxes are still collected on what could be a multimillion-dollar home on the property. Taking away the exemptions, he said, would hurt the legitimate small farmer.

One of the two exemption programs is vulnerable to abuse because the county has little enforcement ability, West Hawaii Today reported Wednesday. It is on a year-to-year basis with no retroactive tax penalty if the landowner stops using the land for agriculture.

"We want to provide incentives for people to be part of the legitimate agriculture industry and not just part of the reduce-your-taxes industry," said Commissioner Mike Robinson, a natural resources manager for the Department of Hawaiian Home Lands.