On October 13th, the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii published the result of a poll of about 1,000 Hawaii residents. They found, not surprisingly, that people don’t like our high state taxes: Maybe I’m too cynical after being at the Tax … Read More
In recent weeks, it’s been no secret that the Hawaii State Teachers Association (HSTA) has had some concerns about their working conditions. Schools are about to start up again with in-person instruction. Teachers are then supposed to be teaching a … Read More
If at first you don’t succeed because of the rules, do you redouble your efforts to meet the rules? Or do you change the rules so you can meet them? HART, the Honolulu transportation agency, has just done the latter. … Read More
What do you think of when you hear the name “Nebraska”? Steaks? Corn? Warren Buffett? As it turns out, they have a few things in common with us. They pride themselves on their quality of life (but for different reasons … Read More
Occasionally, all of us wonder what it’s like to be rich and famous, or at least act like it. “Those people,” you might think, “have at their disposal so many ways to flummox the tax authorities if they want to. … Read More
Over the past 10 or so years that I have been in the seat, I have seen legislature after legislature consider many, many bills to increase taxes. Every year. Without fail. At the Foundation, we keep a list of the … Read More
Recently, the Honolulu City Council has taken up the idea of imposing a different tax rate for residences that are vacant. The idea is contained in Bill 76 (2020), a bill that started off last year, was referred to the … Read More
Most of us have heard about House Bill 862, the bill that cut off the counties’ share of Transient Accommodations Tax (TAT) but allowed the counties to impose their own TAT. This bill became law by legislative override of Governor … Read More
One fundamental assumption that has been made over the years by our lawmakers is that if you enact a tax, money will be raised. What if that weren’t true? In late 2019, a pair of economists, Enrico Moretti and Daniel … Read More
Lately, the news about HART, the body governing Honolulu’s largest ever public works project, has been focused on one of the nine voting members. That member‘s term is coming to an end, and the news is focusing on Mayor Rick … Read More