Question: My wife and I own our home jointly. The home exemption is in my name because I am older. Will we automatically get the higher value after I turn 65? Also, looking far into the future (I hope), what must my wife do to keep the exemption if I die before her?

Answer: The claim form for Oahu’s owner-occupant home exemption asks for the applicant’s date of birth and proof of age. Assuming that you provided that information, yes, the exemption amount will automatically rise after you meet the age threshold. As for your second question, since your wife is a co-owner, she can be added as a backup claimant now; if you die, she would inform the city within 30 days and assume the exemption.

Backup titleholders can be added online, at realprop ertyhonolulu.com, the website of the Real Property Assessment Division of Honolulu’s Department of Budget and Fiscal Services. Click on the icon that says “File a Homeowner’s Exemption. One-time filing or add a titleholder applicant as a backup claimant.” You’ll input the Parcel ID, which is a 12-digit tax map key listed on the property’s assessment notice, as well as details about the backup claimant and other information.

As noted, people seeking a home exemption for the first time also can file this way. They must claim the exemption by Oct. 2 to see it on their 2024-25 property tax bill. It’s also possible to file in person or by mail; instructions are on the website.

Oahu’s home exemption for eligible owner-occupants discounts property taxes by deducting the exemption amount from the home’s assessed value before the tax is calculated. A home exemption is granted to one titleholder. When there is more than one owner, it makes sense for an older titleholder to have the exemption, since exemption discount rises at age 65. A home exemption doesn’t need to be renewed; it rolls over from year to year unless there is a change in status.

Q: Has Mayor Blangiardi formally engaged with Anchorage Mayor Dave Bronson to ask him not to buy homeless people tickets to Honolulu for the winter? If yes, by what method and when? Has Mayor Bronson responded? If yes, how did he respond?

A: No to your first question. “Mayor Blangiardi has not had any conversation with Mayor Bronson at this time. To my knowledge Hawai‘i was not named as one of the states that the Anchorage mayor had suggested,” Scott Humber, a spokesperson for Honolulu’s mayor, said in an email late Wednesday afternoon.

Bronson floated a plan last week to buy one-way plane tickets to warmer cities this winter for homeless people living on the streets of Anchorage, saying that doing so would save lives and money.

“We set a record this last year on how many people died unsheltered in the city. If something doesn’t happen, we’re going to beat that record this next winter. And so, with that moral impetus for me, we’re going to start giving airline tickets for people to go where they want to go,” Bronson said July 24 in the Anchorage Daily News. “If they want to go to a warmer climate, it’s far cheaper to give them $600 to get an airline ticket to anywhere, from San Diego, all the way to Seattle, or to Fairbanks where they’ve got family that can take them, or back to the Bush. I have no choice now.”

Flights to Hawaii were not specified. Blangiardi was asked about Bronson’s plan by at least one Honolulu news station, which seems to have prompted your question. In an interview with Hawaii News Now, Blangiardi wondered why Bronson wasn’t focused on “some sort of indoor solution” in his own backyard.

Government or nonprofit efforts to reunite homeless people with family or friends elsewhere are not uncommon; there have been “flight home” programs in Honolulu over the years.

Write to Kokua Line at Honolulu Star-Advertiser, 500 Ala Moana Blvd., Suite 7-500, Honolulu, HI 96813; call 808-529-4773; or email kokualine@staradvertiser.com.