Weekly Commentary

This week, I was inspired by a sign on the First Baptist Church on Pensacola Street here in Honolulu.  Their sign read, “CH _ _ C H – what’s missing?   U R !” If you take away “U R” from … Read More

The tax bill moving through the Rail Special Session contains one provision that, to me, sticks out above the rest as a “Heads We Win, Tails You Lose” proposition. As you may remember, the Tax Foundation sued the State, contending … Read More

We are getting closer to the special session that our Legislature has scheduled to continue its discussion about funding Honolulu rail.  During this past session, the House and Senate were unable to agree on a common version of a bill … Read More

Earlier this year, the City & County of Honolulu tinkered with its real property tax system.  People who aren’t aware of what happened may find themselves with property tax bills many times what they are now. In Honolulu, as in … Read More

We continue our discussion about the 5% charge assessed against special funds in Hawaii government, also known as the “Central Services Skim.”  Last week, we examined the exemptions from the skim and the danger that the funds who are paying … Read More

By Tom Yamachika, President Last week, we began a discussion about the 5% charge that is assessed against the “special funds” in Hawaii government, which we called the “Central Services Skim.”  For the last few fiscal years, the Central Services … Read More

By Tom Yamachika, President In this space, we have often spoken of funding government with “special funds.”  Special funds are pots of money dedicated to a specified purpose.  Money in the fund can be spent for the specified purpose without … Read More

By Tom Yamachika Growing up in these islands, I always heard the part-Hawaiian proverb that describes a very simple work ethic: “No hanahana, no kaukau.”  Meaning: if you don’t work, you don’t eat. Recently, some very notable people including Mark … Read More

By Tom Yamachika, President On July 10, 2017, Governor Ige proudly signed House Bill 209, a bill that establishes a Hawaii earned income tax credit (HI-EITC for short).  The EITC has been described as “a federal tax credit that helps … Read More

By Tom Yamachika, President On June 7, 2017,the Honolulu City Council voted to authorize bond funding to keep the Honolulu rail project on track. What they might not realize is that bond funding dramatically raises the stakes for transparency around … Read More