A planned increase in property tax exemptions that would provide Oahu homeowners a break of about $70 annually won approval from the City Council Budget Committee Wednesday.

It’s now poised for a final vote of the full Council on March 8.

Bill 3 would raise the standard home exemption, eligible on properties where the owner is also the occupant, to $100,000 from the current $80,000. The exemption last was increased in 2006, when it went to $80,000 from $40,000. That amounts to a savings of about $70 annually for the owner-occupant of a house valued at $880,000.

Officials with Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s Department of Budget and Fiscal Services said while the administration generally supports tax exemptions, they have concerns because the proposed higher exemption in this bill would lower property revenue by about $10 million annually.

The bill was introduced by Councilwoman Heidi Tsuneyoshi, who said after the meeting that the higher exemption would send taxpayers “a glimmer of hope that we’re hearing that they have big concerns about how the bills have increased based on the value of their homes.”

The tax rate for owner-occupied properties has stayed at $3.50 per $1,000 of valuation for a number of years, but assessed values has been climbing steeply.

Steven Takara, deputy director for the Department of Budge Fiscal Services, said the homeowner class provided approximately $557 million in tax revenue for the city in the latest fiscal year, seeing a steady increase annually from the $447 million collected from the category in 2015.

But Budget Director Nelson Koyanagi warned the committee that the higher revenue has been offset by a slew of uncontrollable costs, including higher employee retirement contribution costs. “Expenses are going up and that’s not going to change … Revenues need to keep up with expenses otherwise we’ll get into problems,” he said.

“But the thing that concerns me is rail costs,” Koyanagi added, pointing out that the first leg of the rail line, from East Kapolei to Aloha Stadium, is scheduled to open at the end of 2020.

“That’s two years from now,” he said. “We’re going to have to start looking at how we’re going to pay for rail operations.”

He noted that TheBus and TheHandi-Van costs are also going up and outstripping revenue.

Tsuneyoshi remained undaunted. “You highlight a lot of the concern we had … that we do need to control our costs in the city so that we don’t have to impact our residents and our rate payers the way that we are, due to decisions made at the City Council.”

Council Budget Chairman Joey Manahan said he supports upping the exemption. “I thought this bill is very thoughtful and something I think that’s very timely,” he said. “We haven’t raised the exemption in over 10 years.”

The bill also would raise the standard senior home exemption, eligible on properties where the owner-­­occupant is at least 65 years old, to $140,000 from the current $120,000.