More than 100 small farmers on the Big Island could lose their businesses after Gov. David Ige’s decision to veto a bill allowing them to extend their leases on state land.
Ige vetoed House Bill 1705 last week after announcing his intention to do so in late June. The bill would have allowed certain farmers on agricultural park lands whose leases are expiring in 15 years or less to extend them for an additional 30 years.
Upon vetoing the bill, Ige defended his decision by saying that the state Department of Agriculture’s lease program is intended to be a “start-up program to allow new farmers to become commercially established,” and that allowing people to remain in the program indefinitely locks out other prospective applicants.
But that rationale doesn’t hold water for farmers affected by the decision.
Puna resident Travis Delimont said the two leases for his father’s avocado farm run out in seven and 15 years, at which point, without a simple mechanism to extend the leases, the entire 40-year-old business will be dissolved.
“Our business is literally rooted to the ground,” Delimont said. “We can’t just move to a different place like a restaurant or something.”
In his defense of the veto, Ige added that lessees already have mechanisms for gaining lease extensions. But DOA Deputy Director Morris Atta said via email that those mechanisms have limits.
The park leases are issued for terms between 15 and 55 years, Atta wrote. Lessees whose terms expire within 15 years can request an extension, but only to the 55 year maximum, including their existing term — therefore, Delimont’s parents’ lease would not be eligible.
Delimont said farmers do have the option of rebidding for their leases when they expire. However, he was pessimistic that his father could successfully outbid other prospective farmers — the bids will be based on the land’s value when the lease was awarded in 1982, regardless of the many improvements made to the parcels since then, which likely would make the property popular among bidders, driving the price out of range.
“The profit margins on these farms are not high,” Delimont said, adding that his parents cleared the land themselves, built a three-bedroom house, planted trees and more at their own expense. “It takes a decade or more before they can even become profitable.”
While Ige said last week that there is a long waiting list of prospective farmers waiting to lease land, Delimont said his parents’ farm is surrounded on all sides by unused state agricultural lots.
Atta wrote that there are 198 agricultural park lessees in the state, 119 of which are in Hawaii County, with another 22 on Maui and the remainder on Oahu. HB 1705 would have specifically only allowed extensions for lessees not on Oahu.
Delimont said Ige’s decision “almost seems malicious,” given how it would obliterate the work of the small farmers Ige claims to want to support.
“The crazy thing about the bill is that it wouldn’t just automatically renew our leases,” Delimont said. “You’ve still got to meet the DOA’s qualifications, which includes having a productive farm … We can’t just hang out on the land for the rest of our lives and get an extension. We’d keep working and paying rent.
“So, why take away a compliant, producing farm?” Delimont asked.
Hilo Rep. Chris Todd, a co-sponsor of the bill, said he was disappointed with Ige’s decision, adding that he thought he and other supporters of the bill had “thoroughly debunked” Ige’s concerns throughout the legislative session.
“(Ige) says the leases are for starting farms, but they’re 55-year leases,” Ige said. “That’s not just a starter farm, so I don’t think that’s a good argument.”
Todd said that farmers already participating in the program have spent thousands of dollars out of pocket and years of backbreaking labor to even clear their lots in the first place, only to have those lots taken from them.
He added that not one farmer or prospective farmer testified against the bill during the legislative session.
The first of the agricultural park leases in East Hawaii will expire in 2030, Todd said, with several set to expire on the exact same day. He said he and other lawmakers will attempt to reintroduce a version of the bill next year, in the hopes that the new administration will be more favorable.
“The problem is not going to go away,” Todd said. “But unless we do something, a lot of farms are just going to shut down.”
Email Michael Brestovansky at mbrestovansky@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
