Kama ‘Aina Dividend
Background
Property taxes, we all pay them. Residential gets taxed at 0.35% of the property value, commercial at 1.24%, agricultural land gets taxed at 0.57%. But there is one class of land that is exempt from property tax: military land. Despite taking up about one third of O'ahu's habitable land, such vast acreage has never been charged a cent for the privilege of accessing Hawai'i's natural resources. The basis for this is the supremacy clause of the Constitution, which declares that federal law is "the supreme Law of the Land"; thus, since there is no federal property tax, federal properties are not subject to any local property taxes, so the prevailing reasoning goes. While such an arrangement may be fine in states such as Texas or California, it is quite unreasonable in Hawai'i. Beyond the proportion of the islands that military properties take up compared to those of mainland states, another distinction is that Hawai'i was a sovereign nation that was illegally annexed by the United States for American business interests. Therefore, there is an argument for limited exceptions to the supremacy clause in Hawai'i such as local property taxes on federal land.
Why is it important for the military to pay local property taxes?
Besides the issues of outlined above, it is important for the military to pay local property taxes because they pay for essential services throughout the island. These essential services such as roads, sewers, and electricity are used by the military as well as civilians on the island. Sometimes, such as in the case of heavy vehicles, the military's use of the island's essential services are disproportional compared to civilian usage. O'ahu's infrastructure is in sore need of upgrading and the local government's only recourse is increasing the tax burden on civilians, which is increasingly onerous due to the impact of inflation and increase in cost of living. By taxing the military, at least the increased tax burden for updating our infrastructure is avoided by residents.
In addition to the tangible aspects of sharing responsibility for essential services, the public relations side is important as well. Putting material action into community infrastructure would put real weight behind the message that the military is part of our community.
How much money are we talking about?
O'ahu taxes properties based on parcel value; however, since there is no parcel data on military land, we have to calculate the value of said land with an alternative method. If we use GDP as a proxy for what the military is protecting, we get a value of about 30 trillion dollars, which is the GDP of the United States in 2024. Hawai'i is the home of INDOPACOM, which oversees command of the Indian and Pacific Ocean. Therefore, since Hawai'i is central to protecting half of America's two fronts, it would be fair to say that Hawai'i military facilities are worth 15 trillion dollars. Let's say we take a conservative estimate to that figure and call it an even 10 trillion dollars. At a property tax rate of 1%, that means the people of Hawai'i are due 100 billion dollars per year from the military. Now let's make something clear, that money will not come from current active duty salaries because those are set in stone. The money, assuming the military budget stays the same, will come from things such as less procurement of weapon systems, which is a good thing because legacy weapon makers have been lobbying Washington to continue buying outdated systems, while future warfare systems such as cost-effective drones have been under utilized, as seen in Ukraine.
What do we do with the money?
Before I get into what we do with the tax proceeds here in Hawai'i, I would like to quickly describe the Alaska Oil Wealth Fund, which is a program that pays quarterly dividends to residents of Alaska from the proceeds of oil sales from its reserves. These dividends are given equally to all residents of Alaska with no strings attached. It is a form of universal basic income in America. Therefore, I propose that the money from the military paying local property taxes be disbursed to the residents of Hawai'i in the form of the "kama 'aina dividend". While the community resource in Alaska is oil, our community resource in Hawai'i is the 'aina itself. Hawai'i is the only piece of land in the Central Pacific Ocean and its strategic importance enables the US military to project its power to India and Asia. Yes, the military protects us, but it also cannot effectively function without the residents of Hawai'i. As caretakers of this important land, we kama 'aina have the right to the benefits that the rest of America derives from our station. In addition to helping the military protect the mainland, we also bear the risks of INDOPACOM being located in Hawai'i; remember the false missile alert? Obviously, the details will have to be adapted to Hawai'i, but if universal basic income can work in Alaska, it can work here.