Recently, the nonprofit Reason Foundation published a study of the fifty states’ performance against financial metrics designed to assess a state’s financial viability. The foundation selected eight metrics and gave a red flag to indicate failing performance on that metric. … Read More
In a recent book The Time Tax: How the Government Wastes Our Time — and How to Fix It, Annie Lowrey, staff writer at The Atlantic, explores how government paperwork, bureaucracy, and administrative hurdles cause an “extortionate” burden on American … Read More
Hawaii has no shortage of celebrity property owners. What I mean is that there are famous people who own property — sometimes a lot of property — here in Hawaii even though said famous people might not live here. You … Read More
Here in Hawaii, it’s a big deal for the state to have a stable source of revenue. Tax lawsuits have the potential to tie that revenue up, so here, as well as in many other states, there are quirky rules … Read More
Every so often, I’m asked what kind of things we should be looking for, as a society, when the legislature is in session and is considering different ways to beat money out of us. So, here is what I think. … Read More
This week’s article comes from a tip from one of our very alert constituents. It concerns one of the special funds set up in the City Charter of Honolulu that is fed automatically by an earmark on property tax revenues. … Read More
One of the new features in the tax landscape wrought by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act is a program called Education Freedom Tax Credits. The program supports scholarships for American students, but in a very indirect way. It supports … Read More
Recently, a letter from the America First Policy Institute garnered some local attention by suggesting that three justices of the Hawaii Supreme Court should be disciplined for bad-mouthing the U.S. Supreme Court. The letter concerns Granillo v. State, a 91-page … Read More
This week, I wanted to give some additional context in depth to a commentary by new Civil Beat columnist Olin Lagon entitled “A Subsidy Is a Statement About Who Matters.” Our state does a lot of giving and taking when … Read More
This week we will be discussing some of the proposals on the ballot in Honolulu that have been put forward by the Honolulu Charter Commission. (If you are in another county, don’t click the Close button just yet, because this … Read More