People on fixed incomes have brought this problem up many times, only to have it fall on “deaf ears.”
My new mortgage statement just arrived. It seems adding more than $400 a month to someone on a fixed income is no big deal to my bank. I don’t expect the bank to care, but I do expect our elected officials to care.
People plead for property tax relief and get sympathetic responses from politicians that go nowhere. No one needs relief more than those on fixed incomes.
Once you retire, your property tax should freeze or at least be limited to a maximum amount per year. We have no recourse but to give up things or sell our houses.
In the meantime, there is a huge surplus of money and our politicians are asking for huge raises so they can now afford their property taxes and everything else that costs more (“Panel endorses pay raises for top Honolulu officials,” Star-Advertiser, March 22).
It’s unfortunate our lives too often end soon after we retire. Otherwise, we would have a stronger vote for new elected officials who either have “receptive ears” or at least different ears.
Peter Anderson
Kailua
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