Entries for January 2023

... Akina and Iwasa discuss the history of property taxes in Hawaii, how assessments are conducted and what reforms the counties should consider ....

... "7.2% of the individuals were furloughed, or reduced their working hours while 6.6% of them reported having someone in their family furloughed or reducing working hours" ....

... Gov. Josh Green made eliminating the general excise tax for food and medicine one of his major talking points. And on the county level, faced with concerns about skyrocketing real estate assessments, Mayor Rick Blangiardi promised to “aggressively” pursue ways to reduce that tax burden. ....

... 16% of Hawaiʻi’s rural roads and 26% of urban roads rated with poor pavement roughness ....

... whenever a grand jury is impaneled an independent counsel shall be appointed, as provided by law, to advise the members of the grand jury regarding matters brought before it ....

... more than 15,000 left the state between July 2021 and July 2022 ....

... According to 2021 data from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, 78.9% of traced guns in Hawaii were sold by an out-of-state retailer - the third largest share in the country. Firearms traced by the ATF typically have been used, or are suspected to have been used, to commit a crime ....

... Tasha Kama was unanimously selected as the new interim council chair pending the outcome of the legal challenge to Alice Lee's election now before the Hawaii Supreme Court ....

... bold proposals for legislative reform ....

... money is green ....

... effective January 3, 2023 ....

... the important thing isn’t money for the sake of money, but whether it’s being used wisely to make our lives better ....