As O'ahu residents received notice of what the city thinks their property is worth, they began calling city officials yesterday at a rate of about 25 people each hour.

Dozens of others walked into the city's real property assessment offices or sent e-mails.

Gary Kurokawa, administrator of the assessment division, said he expects Monday to be busier. That's because more people will have received word that their property values shot up again last year, which is likely to send their tax bills up — again — when the bills go out this summer.

More of the 273,550 notices will reach people across O'ahu in the next few days.

"I'm sure that as the week goes on, it will start picking up" even more, Kurokawa said.

Mayor Mufi Hannemann announced Thursday that assessed property values climbed nearly 26 percent over last year, sustaining six years of growing values that have sent tax bills soaring. The City Council sets the tax rates in the spring and the bills go out in July. But the assessments mailed out this month give taxpayers an estimate of what the taxes will be if rates remain the same.

Hannemann is recommending that rates do just that, which would bring the city tens of millions of dollars more in revenue because of higher property values. He also is proposing a one-time $200 tax credit for property owners ages 62 and older, which would affect about 60,000 people.

Lowell Kalapa, president of the Tax Foundation of Hawai'i, criticized the tax credit proposal, saying it would not help people who most need the tax break. "So what if you're 62?" he asked. "I'm sure there are a lot of young couples out in Kapolei who can't afford their increase."

Kalapa would prefer to see Hannemann lead a policy discussion of what services people might be willing to do without if it meant their taxes were lower. "Curtail your spending, then you don't need to raise revenues," he said.

After years of tax increases, Kalapa said he thinks taxpayers are willing to talk about giving up some things. People may be willing to see their parks cleaned less often or fewer senior citizen activities offered if it meant their bills would drop.

If taxpayers don't get real relief, Kalapa predicted that they will call for a ballot initiative similar to California's Proposition 13 that capped increases in property taxes as long as an owner owns a property. The tax would only increase sharply if the property was sold.

Kalapa said that kind of cap essentially puts government on a fixed budget and "binds the hands of decision-makers."

Hannemann also proposed using some of the added tax revenue to build an emergency fund of about $50 million that could be used during economic downturns, natural disasters or other hard financial times.

Kalapa said that has merit, but he's skeptical that the city would succeed in stashing that money and not tapping it except in rare cases.

Reach Robbie Dingeman at rdingeman@honoluluadvertiser.com.