Aloha Kakko, it's 5 30 p.m.

We are starting the public hearing here at our Hawaii County Building Council Chambers in Hilo, 25 Alponi Street.

The date today is May 19, 2026, and pursuant to Chapter 19, Article 11, Section 19-90 of the Hawaii County Code.

This public hearing is being held for the purpose of considering real property tax rates for all classes of real property in the county of Hawaii for fiscal year 2026 to 2027.

And as part of this public hearing, the council will be receiving testimony from members of the public.

We will not be engaging in any discussion or the answering of any questions that will happen as part of our resolution discussion on Thursday, uh this Thursday, May 21st here at our heado chambers beginning at 9 a.m.

Uh, with that, we will take public testimony at this time.

Thank you so much, Chair.

We do have a couple of testifiers via Zoom along with our testifiers here in the Hilo chambers.

So what we'll do is we'll start with our Zoom testifiers and close out with our Hilo folks.

Our first testifier is Dwight Vicente to be followed by Nelson Harano.

Dwight, when you're ready to begin, you can unmute your mic by hitting star six, introducing yourself, and you'll have three minutes.

Thanks, Dwight Vicente, representing the Hawaiian Kingdom.

Uh the case state versus Jim 2004.

Limited the state and the county to the 1898 joint resolution and the 1959 State Emission Act.

It's a 1 million 750,000 acres of Crown and Government lands that was illegal illegally ceded to the U.S.

by the Banana Republic.

There are over 2.2 million acres of Crown and Government lands that was under King Kolakawa's 30-year lease from 1890 to 1920.

So what happened in the state versus Jim case was he argued both the ceded land and the leased land, and the moon court said kept it to the ceded land, 1890 joint resolution and the 1959 admission act.

So the county charter is illegal.

Saying the whole island is the county of Hawaii, which is not only the ceded land.

And uh the illegal development of all the the lease lands, what what you guys call the agricultural lands is over 2.2 million acres.

Those lands are leased out under the 1848 Mahele, it's a land trust.

The lands cannot be sold.

There's no private ownership, like everybody is misled to believe.

And uh the guys that was leasing the large tracts of lands did not own the land, nor could they claim ownership.

They were foreign nationals, and they had a lease contract for 30 years.

When the lease ended, the the lease ended, and they they gotta move off the land.

The only people that stayed on the land even during the lease was the Kanaka people.

They lived on the land, and it's part of the lease contract.

So as far as for taxation, the county cannot tax, the state cannot tax, and the federal government has no taxing power over over this kingdom.

U.S.

Constitution restricts the U.S.

taxes to Article 1, Section 2, Clause 3 of the U.S.

Constitution.

13 states and the taxing power under the Northwest Ordinance is limited to the Ohio River Valley Indian Reserve only.

It's September 17, 1787.

The other Indian land to speak of was just that Indian land, which was not actually under the uh Continental Congress 76.

So uh the as far as for taxation, it's illegal.

And I I think the what needs to be done, the state versus gym case should be enforced.

The court has jurisdiction over that and limited to enforce it.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Uh Mr.

Rasulley, before we continue this public hearing, I uh understand that some members of the public had difficulty understanding me when I opened this public hearing.

So I just want to reconfirm uh what this public hearing is.

And this is a public hearing pursuant to chapter 19, Article 11, Section 19-90 of the Hawaii County Code.

And we are here taking public testimony on proposed tax rates for the 2026-2027 fiscal year.

The council will not be discussing or making any decisions this evening.

This is just an opportunity for the public to provide your testimony on proposed rates this Thursday, May 21st at 9 a.m.

We will be having a special meeting of the council to not only determine potential rates via resolution, but also having the first reading of bills 135, the operating budget, and bills 13 and bill 136, the capital improvement budget as well.

Thank you.

Please proceed with public testimony.

Thank you, Chair.

Your next testifier via Zoom is Nelson Harano to be followed by Heather Hedenshaw here in the HELO chamber.

Nelson, when you're ready to begin, you can unmute, introduce yourself, and you've got three minutes.

Nelson, it seems like you were muted.

I just said uh good afternoon.

Good evening, everyone.

I'm I think you can hear me now, right?