Thursday, March 28, 2024
Hawai'i Free Press

Current Articles | Archives

Sunday, March 27, 2022
A Bold Step Forward from Diapers
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2158 Views :: Family, Taxes, Cost of Living

A Bold Step Forward from Diapers

by Tom Yamachika, President, Tax Foundation Hawaii

Our latest tale of legislative drama starts from diapers.

Literally.

House Bill 2414 in this year’s legislative session proposes to enact a general excise exemption for diapers.

The bill recites that diapers are a large expense for Hawaii families with small children and are essential to babies' and toddlers' health as they each require about fifty diaper changes per week, or roughly two hundred diaper changes per month.  However, according to the National Diaper Bank Network, one in three families struggle to afford clean diapers for their children.

Our general excise tax, the bill supporters point out, is highly regressive, meaning that people on the lower end of the income spectrum spend comparatively more of their hard-earned dollars on general excise tax.  This problem has been known for several decades but has been met with inaction for the most part.  It’s been well known that in this state, lots of things that are considered necessities of life are subjected to the GET, including food and medical care.

So, the Chamber of Commerce of Hawaii had an interesting comment about this diaper bill.  “While the Chamber supports making a general excise tax exemption for the manufacture, production, packaging and sale of diapers, we believe the bill does not go far enough.,” it sald.  “The Chamber respectfully asks the committee to consider an amendment that would make a general excise tax exemption for the gross proceeds or income from the manufacture, production, packaging, and sale of food and medicine.  Food and medicine are the most important and basic life necessities in this world, and still some struggle to provide those items for their families. We believe including food and medicine into the general excise tax exemption would further help families in need.”

Similar comments were made by the Hawaii Restaurant Association, Hawaii Food Industry Association, and Retail Merchants of Hawaii. 

Apparently, that was enough to spur the Senate Committee on Energy, Economic Development, and Tourism into action.  On March 18, the committee voted to amend HB 2414 to add an exemption for food and medicine.  The text of the amended bill was not released by our publication deadline. 

An exemption for food and medicine would indeed be a bold step forward.  It would undoubtedly have a massive revenue cost, but a massive impact as well. 

To be sure, such exemptions have been proposed in the past and have mostly fallen to the wayside.  Lots of arguments have broken out, not only here but also in other states that have similar exemptions in their sales tax, about what kinds of food and medical care are “necessities,” presumably deserving of the exemption, versus “luxuries,” which presumably are not.  For example, would you exempt a doctor’s fee for performing plastic surgery?  Would your answer be the same if the surgery was necessary to put a person back together after getting in a car crash?   If a line needs to be drawn somewhere, how do you draw it?

But—and this may be the point the Senate Committee is trying to make—the difficultly in drawing that line shouldn’t be an excuse for not doing anything about the problem.  We have a social problem in that our tax system is regressive.  It hits people harder when they have less of an ability to pay it.  How do we address that problem in a fair and thoughtful manner, as opposed to simple-mindedly saying that we should enact more and larger taxes that really beat the heck out of those who have some money?

Links

TEXT "follow HawaiiFreePress" to 40404

Register to Vote

2aHawaii

808 Silent Majority

Aloha Pregnancy Care Center

AntiPlanner

Antonio Gramsci Reading List

A Place for Women in Waipio

Ballotpedia Hawaii

Broken Trust

Build More Hawaiian Homes Working Group

Christian Homeschoolers of Hawaii

Cliff Slater's Second Opinion

DVids Hawaii

FIRE

Fix Oahu!

Frontline: The Fixers

Genetic Literacy Project

Grassroot Institute

Habele.org

Hawaii Aquarium Fish Report

Hawaii Aviation Preservation Society

Hawaii Catholic TV

Hawaii Christian Coalition

Hawaii Cigar Association

Hawaii ConCon Info

Hawaii Debt Clock

Hawaii Defense Foundation

Hawaii Family Forum

Hawaii Farmers and Ranchers United

Hawaii Farmer's Daughter

Hawaii Federalist Society

Hawaii Federation of Republican Women

Hawaii History Blog

Hawaii Homeschool Association

Hawaii Jihadi Trial

Hawaii Legal News

Hawaii Legal Short-Term Rental Alliance

Hawaii Matters

Hawaii's Partnership for Appropriate & Compassionate Care

Hawaii Public Charter School Network

Hawaii Rifle Association

Hawaii Shippers Council

Hawaii Smokers Alliance

Hawaii State Data Lab

Hawaii Together

HIEC.Coop

HiFiCo

Hiram Fong Papers

Homeschool Legal Defense Hawaii

Honolulu Moms for Liberty

Honolulu Navy League

Honolulu Traffic

House Minority Blog

Imua TMT

Inouye-Kwock, NYT 1992

Inside the Nature Conservancy

Inverse Condemnation

Investigative Project on Terrorism

July 4 in Hawaii

Kakaako Cares

Keep Hawaii's Heroes

Land and Power in Hawaii

Legislative Committee Analysis Tool

Lessons in Firearm Education

Lingle Years

Managed Care Matters -- Hawaii

Malama Pregnancy Center of Maui

MentalIllnessPolicy.org

Military Home Educators' Network Oahu

Missile Defense Advocacy

MIS Veterans Hawaii

NAMI Hawaii

Natatorium.org

National Christian Foundation Hawaii

National Parents Org Hawaii

NFIB Hawaii News

No GMO Means No Aloha

Not Dead Yet, Hawaii

NRA-ILA Hawaii

Oahu Alternative Transport

Obookiah

OHA Lies

Opt Out Today

OurFutureHawaii.com

Patients Rights Council Hawaii

PEACE Hawaii

People vs Machine

Practical Policy Institute of Hawaii

Pritchett Cartoons

Pro-GMO Hawaii

P.U.E.O.

RailRipoff.com

Rental by Owner Awareness Assn

ReRoute the Rail

Research Institute for Hawaii USA

Rick Hamada Show

RJ Rummel

Robotics Organizing Committee

School Choice in Hawaii

SenatorFong.com

Sink the Jones Act

Statehood for Guam

Talking Tax

Tax Foundation of Hawaii

The Real Hanabusa

Time Out Honolulu

Trustee Akina KWO Columns

UCC Truths

US Tax Foundation Hawaii Info

VAREP Honolulu

Waagey.org

West Maui Taxpayers Association

What Natalie Thinks

Whole Life Hawaii

Yes2TMT