zero county code the county council proposes to set the county fuel tax rates purpose of this mobile experience to receive public testimony on the proposed resolution entitled adopting the fuel tax rates for the county of maui effective july first two thousand and fifteen mr clark can you please call the role robin council member robert carroll excuse council member gladys quayle obeisance present council member present and two excused quorum is present to conduct the business of the counsel thank you mr clerk was the notice of public hearing properly published mr chair notice of this public hearing on the proposed resolution adopting the fuel that's please proceed mr jenner proceeding with presentation of public testimony we have three individuals dead have signed up to provide a testimony this morning we've established district office staff individuals who wish to offer testimony in the chamber please sign up at the desk located on the eighth floor lobby just outside the chamber door testimony at all locations is limited to the item listed on today agenda and pursuant to the rules of the counsel each testify or is allowed to testify for up to three minutes with one minute to conclude if requested when testifying please state your name and the name of any organization you represent le at this time mr chair we have three individual four individuals who have signed up to provide testimony this morning the first individual is mr william eighteen cents per gallon for gasoline too often people want something for nothing they want government to provide more services and programs for their benefit but they don't want to pay for them i believe that is wrong i also believe that it is wrong for the owners of electric vehicles to have a free ride by not contributing a penny to the fuel tax fund that is collected and used to design construct improve repair and maintain our streets roads bridges sidewalks and street lights if the proposed rate is approved you and i and every owner of a gasoline driven car in maui county will be contributing eighteen cents per gallon toward the costs of to provide and maintain the services i just mentioned on the other hand all the electric vehicle owners will enjoy all of the benefits of a well maintained highway system without paying that eighteen cents a gallon fuel tax like the rest of us now that is wrong truly wrong although i strongly support efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and i firmly believe that this is one of the major issues facing mankind the twenty first century i am strongly against a solution that favors electric vehicle owners and wrongly discriminates against owners who drive gasoline powered vehicles recently i spoke to a service station owner and he told me that a tax on gasoline is about seventy cents a gallon depending on how much driving one does the federal state and county fuel taxes could amount to hundreds or thousands of dollars a year since the electric vehicle owners do not buy any gasoline to run their cars they in fact do not pay anything into the fuel tax fund that is used to build and maintain the streets and roads upon which they travel every day why should electric vehicle owners have a free ride at the expense of the owners of gasoline vehicles the council should look into imposing a special annual fee on each electric vehicle s money to be deposited into the fuel tax account that is funded by you and me through a gasoline purchase since more and more electric vehicles are coming on the scene every year time is of the essence you need to take a stand  had back in two thousand and eight i guess now ok we lowered it back then and so we were turning it and the seventy cents that you referred to mr oh come on i just returned from washington d c and the discussion is how do we it has not changed so innocently twenty two years no change i want the public to hear this because this really is me telling you but i want the public to hear this and more importantly i agree with you some o all these alternative equals thousands of dollars depending how much you use i think if you did a calculation how much gas you use and people like yourself how much do you think it would be you personally paying each year for being there your comments about electric cars has been discussed quite a bit of the question i have for you is in order to make it i guess more fair for everybody right even those who are driving regular gas vehicles if we took away all of the fuel tax and charged everybody a month per mile either sick every six months or or once a year would that be a more usefully of the roads would that be more fair that would be one of the solutions i had in mind you know the mileage or like every year electric vehicles when they have their annual check up yeah the automotive people could take the mileage and next year the miles how many miles said they run the past year and they could be assessed so much per mile under the possibilty would be i don't know what counsel thank you for your hard work on the budget and i am here to support the the two cent per gallon increase in the in the fuel tax and every year you learned something when you when you watch the budget and i learned and i was i was pleased this year to see that those funds that you know go into the fuel tax and also the way tax which you'll be talking about later go directly to our roads and i can't think of a more fair way to do it notwithstanding the electric car conundrum there but the idea that someone who uses the roads more therefore burns more fuel pays more of the tax i calculated for myself in this two cent increase means i pay twelve dollars more a year i am more than happy to pay twelve dollars more a year in my fuel tax in order to ensure that you have the funds to to take care of the roads the other tax that you'll talk about it at the next session is the weight tax and i will point out that electric vehicles by virtue of their batteries do way more and that i'm paying in taxes that's about a thousand dollars that i pay overall because i don't drive a lot of miles and you know what if that if that is what it takes to keep good roads again i am more than happy to pay that i think the way this is structured sure i have better yes i have my own business and i do service calls all day so i'm on the road a lot and i put gas in my vehicle twice about twice a week and i can say  that having this brief reprieve from the gas prices being lower it has been really helpful for everyone who for everyone of course but where i'm paying forty five dollars to fill up my tank instead of eighty dollars it's been really helpful to me raising i don't know i was just really raised to live within my means i don't get to get extra money just because you guys ask for more money so and not that most people don't they're kind of set in the amount of money that they make i would like to hear because i don't really know what i don't know what the money is why you're asking for this money i mean two cents a gallon doesn't sound like much but it's on top of will tax i mean it's on top of all the other taxes it's not i can't look at it with just one little as one little thing it's just the the burdens taxation and regulation here on the on in hawaii is just it's and the come well i try not to digress but having to comply with everything and it's just overwhelming for businesses and for individuals but i don't  really understand why why you need to raise the tax i just think it's just too it's just too much i feel like we've enough and to be asking for it here and there and here and there it's just where are we supposed to come up with that money and it seems that it would make sense the more that i have in my pocket the more i'm the more you guys leave me in my pocket i get to go spend it at local businesses i get to go out i get to go to a movie i get to go do things you keep taking that money i can't buy new things i can't do you know i then everything goes in my gas tank or everything goes into it's just the more money i have the better the economy does because i get to go spend it and i again i've never done this before i'm really happy for all you guys that you know do this job it's really important i've  just appreciate what you do but i that's how i feel i feel like we really are taxed enough already and just to keep where are we supposed to come up with it and that's what i don't i don't understand chairman royce counsel thank you for allowing me to come and testify in for hearing my testimony as you can tell by my attire i'm opposed to the tax if you could mention your name for the right i'm sorry larry quimby and this also is my first time a testimony but i would like to reiterate what the initial testifier had mentioned is people keep wanting more and more services but nobody wants to pay taxes so we keep adding but we never stop any of the old services there are no cuts understand the need for the roads improvement here on maui i live in haul co i drive low highway daily when i go to work and it's a mishmash of potholes and repairs so i understand the need for road improvements cents sure i understand ok two cents so you fill up your tank you've got ten gallons that's what twenty cents but somewhere along the line there's going to be that straw that breaks the camel's back and i would like you to consider that as well this is the people's money i do not envy your position people are asking if we want this we want that and then they're coming back and saying well but i don't want to pay for it so perhaps the solution is to look into other ways to reduce the county's expenses  that's all i have at this time so thank you very much for letting me testify thank you mr gridley members any questions and test for them thank you very much for being here this morning mr chair there's no additional individual signed up to provide testimony in the council chamber if there is any additional individuals in the council chamber or at the district offices dad would like to provide testimony please identify yourself to the appropriate staff and proceed to the testimony lecture in the district office for when this time when office are there any additional testif office are there any additional testif a chair there were no individuals either in the district offices or the chamber did wish to provide testimony at this at this time mr chair oh mr chair  we're going to go to molokai they are now available are there any individuals wishing to provide testimony the clerk to put the written testimony into the record thank you so ordered no objections will close public testimony for the day ok thank you very much