It's not a mystery why so many people have been leaving the Aloha State

From Grassroot Institute, July 12, 2021

'It's the same story being told over and over again," Akina told radio host Johnny Miro during an interview this past Sunday 

Over the past four years, Hawaii’s population has declined by more than 22,000 people, equaling the third-fastest population decline per capita in the entire nation. 

Why are so many of our family, friends and neighbors leaving our beautiful state?

Keli'i Akina, president of the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, discussed some of the reasons this past Sunday with radio host Johnny Miro of the H. Hawaii Media radio network, which operates 15 stations on Oahu, Maui and Kauai

“It’s the same story being told over and over again,” Akina said. "A recent poll showed that the biggest reason people leave is the high cost of living. The second reason — which is somewhat related to it — is better career opportunities and the ability to make it on the mainland.”

Akina acknowledged some of Hawaii's high cost of living is related to "our unique geography out here in the middle of the Pacific."

But reasons such as "the high taxes needed to support a big government and all its spending, the high cost of housing due to regulations, those are things we could do something about." Those are "bad political policies [that] force us to deal with an extremely high cost of living."

Miro said he didn't think Hawaii lawmakers could be implementing policies "that drive away taxpayers and businesses" on purpose.

Akina responded: "Well, yes, I agree with you, Johnny. I don't think that our government leaders, our legislators and our county council members go to work in the morning, saying, 'I want to find a way to make life harder for people in Hawaii.' I think that a lot of the consequences of their policies are unintended. There are a lot of very good intentions. But we have to look at the basic economics to really work through whether a policy is good for us or is bad for us. That's why we have to look at what other states are doing and see what works and what doesn't work."