[§46-74.2]  Public land or land exempt from
taxation, etc.; cost otherwise assessable against borne by city and
county.  Whenever (1) any public land, except lands owned by the board of
water supply, or (2) any land by law exempted from improvement assessments, or
(3) any land exempted by law from payment of property taxes which land is owned
by a society, association, or corporation engaged in religious, charitable,
educational, scientific, literary, or other benevolent purposes, whose charter
or other enabling act contains a provision that, in the event of dissolution,
the land owned by such society, association, or corporation and herein exempted
from assessments shall be distributed to another society, association, or
corporation engaged in religious, charitable, educational, scientific,
literary, or other benevolent purposes, forms part of any improvement district
or fronts upon any street, alley, or other highway to be opened or improved or
along which a storm drainage system or street lighting system is to be
constructed or improved independently and would, if privately owned or not
exempt from such assessment, be subject to assessment, the city council shall,
nevertheless, without assessing such public or exempted land for any part of
the cost of such improvements, by general ordinance appropriate and pay toward
such improvements out of general revenues the portion of the cost thereof which
would otherwise be assessable against the same in a lump sum or, at the
election of the council, in such equal installments and with such interest
thereon as the council shall determine.  In the event, however, any part or
parts of such exempt lands as described in the preceding sentence, except
public lands, may be required for right-of-way or easement purposes within such
improvement districts the value thereof shall be chargeable to the improvement
district, and upon acquisition the owner shall be compensated therefor in the
following manner:



(1)  Where the value of the part taken together with
any severance damages exceeds the portion of the cost of the improvements which
would otherwise be assessable against the exempt land, the county shall pay the
difference to the owner or owners;



(2)  Where the value is less than the portion of the
cost of improvements which would otherwise be assessable against such exempt
lands, the value of the land shall be deducted therefrom and the county shall
pay the balance of the assessment as provided herein.



With respect to any proposed improvement where any
part of the cost is thus to be borne by the city and county, the council shall
have the same right of approval or protest as though the city and county were
the private owner of the public or exempted land so involved.  As to such
expenditures for public and exempt lands, the city and county shall be entitled
to be reimbursed out of state revenues by appropriations to be made from time
to time by the legislature to the extent of fifty per cent of all assessments
regularly apportioned against persons, corporations, or entities, which are
part of any improvement district or frontage improvement and are exempted by
law from the payment of such assessments.  The city and county shall be
entitled to be likewise reimbursed for the full amount of assessments regularly
apportioned against public lands which are a part of any improvement district
or frontage improvement, which public lands are owned in fee simple by the
United States, or by the State, and which are not set aside for city and county
parks, or for other city and county purposes or for street areas or frontages;
provided that as to the University of Hawaii, Kapiolani park, including the
Waikiki parks established by the laws of 1905, chapter 103, section 1, the city
and county shall be entitled to full reimbursement for improvement assessments;
and provided further that in case any land exempted by law from assessments as
herein provided, other than public land, or any part thereof, is sold or leased
after the establishment of a frontage improvement or an improvement district, the
grantee, in the one case and the lessor in the other, shall assume the payment
of assessments from the date of such sale or lease in the same manner as if the
property had not been exempted from assessments and as if assessments
proportionable against the property had been paid in installments to such date
of sale or lease; and that all payments received from such grantee or lessor,
as the case may be, shall be paid into the permanent improvement fund.  Nothing
in this section shall be taken to prejudice any rights of the State to
reimbursement from the United States for assessments herein assumed by the
State, but the latter shall be subrogated to the rights of the city and county
on such assessments so assumed. [L 1919, c 241, pt of §2; RL 1925, §1852; am L
1925, c 191, §2; am L 1929, c 110, §1; am L 1932 2d, c 69, §1; RL 1935, §3183;
RL 1945, §6704; am L 1949, c 267, §1(3); am L 1953, c 263, §1(2); RL 1955,
§153-3; am L 1957, c 240, §2(2) and c 248, §1; am imp L 1965, c 97, §1; am L
1965, c 228, §1; HRS §70-111; ren L 1988, c 263, §7]



 



Cross References



 



  Waiver of exemption, see §46-74.



 



Case Notes



 



Decisions prior to 1988.



  Nature and scope of county's obligation to improvement
district bondholders regarding assessment collections.  323 F. Supp. 666.



  Cited:  32 H. 803, 809.