We are in trying times now, folks. Much of the state is closed. The Capitol and many government offices, including the Department of Taxation, are locked down. People are working remotely when they can, and we are too. In the … Read More
It seems like every year we have a legislature, we have dozens of legislative tax proposals to wade through. Some would lessen the burden on the beleaguered consumer, but most would do the reverse. Most of the tax bills, as … Read More
Senate Bill 2696, which the Senate has just given to the House for consideration, is a bill “Relating to Green Fees.” These green fees have nothing to do with playing golf, however; they are per visitor, per stay charges the … Read More
Some of the bills making their way through our Legislature are sponsored by executive departments. One such department, the Department of Taxation, is behind a few of them. One of them worth mentioning, introduced as SB 2922 and HB 2366, … Read More
In the past few legislative sessions, there always had been one or two proposals to raise taxes in a big way. Some of them got pretty far along the road to becoming law, and some of them actually became law. … Read More
We have occasionally written about a “carbon tax,” something environmentalists appear to be supporting enthusiastically. The basic idea behind one is that a tax is placed upon the purchase of all fuels that result in carbon emissions when the fuel … Read More
This year’s Legislature has produced some unique proposed solutions to deal with our housing crisis. Senate Bill 2216, introduced by Sen. Stanley Chang, chair of the Senate Housing Committee, proposes an “empty homes tax.“ If you own residential real property … Read More
Two years ago, we as voters were inundated with impassioned arguments on both sides of a proposed constitutional amendment (“ConAm” for short). The amendment would have given the State the power to impose a surcharge on real property tax, ostensibly … Read More
After going through the hundreds of bills introduced in the 2020 Legislature, a few themes appear to be emerging. One of them is that there are a plethora of requests for “special funds.” Special funds are pots of money that … Read More
On January 8, OHA Trustee Brandon Kalei’ana Lee wrote an op-ed in the Star-Advertiser entitled “OHA has right to attorney-client privilege.” In that article, Lee was reacting to State Auditor Les Kondo’s insistence that the OHA trustees turn over unredacted … Read More