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Sunday, April 23, 2023
TANF Hoarding, Continued
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2107 Views :: Hawaii State Government

... Hawaii was called out by the nonprofit newsroom ProPublica in 2022 for letting TANF money gather dust in some dark corner instead of putting it to use helping families and children ....

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Sunday, April 16, 2023
It Isn’t Over Until It’s Over
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2479 Views :: Education K-12, Ethics, Tax Credits

... In the meantime, lawmakers have been figuring out how to bypass conventional learning about when a bill is dead. Here is one example ....

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Monday, April 10, 2023
Tax Hikes: Where Hawai'i Fits in National Trends
By Tom Yamachika @ 4:42 PM :: 2104 Views :: Taxes

... Wealth tax, proposed simultaneously in seven states including Hawaii ....

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Sunday, April 9, 2023
Hope for Tax Relief Still Alive
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1887 Views :: Taxes

... only one Senate committee, Ways & Means, will be entrusted with the fate of all three bills ....

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Sunday, April 2, 2023
Legislative Madness
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1905 Views :: Ethics, Hawaii State Government

... “It’s just four months of chaos" ....

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Monday, March 27, 2023
Council on State Taxation: Looking Out for Business
By Tom Yamachika @ 12:01 AM :: 1778 Views :: Small Business, Taxes

... the Committee on State Taxation focuses on the impact of state taxes on businesses across the country ....

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Sunday, March 26, 2023
Credit Madness
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1715 Views :: Tax Credits

... Tax Credits were proposed for, among other things, upgrading technology infrastructure; sequestering carbon; upgrading or conversion of cesspools; being a health care preceptor; manufacturing food; providing childcare to employees; being in a creative district; producing organic food; and just being in the state while everyone else is being hammered by a carbon tax ....

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Sunday, March 19, 2023
Picking Apart the Case for Conveyance Tax Hikes
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1739 Views :: Taxes

... Senate Bill 362 proposes to double the tax on residential property, selling for at least $2 million ....

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Sunday, March 12, 2023
California’s Surplus to Deficit
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1844 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Taxes

... the revenue that did materialize was spent in a flash ....

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Sunday, March 5, 2023
Love-Hate Relationship with Tourism 
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2011 Views :: Taxes, Tourism

... We have been taxing the bejeebers out of tourists ....

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Sunday, February 26, 2023
Creative Districts 
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1831 Views :: Tax Credits

... In the Senate bill, creative enterprises in a creative district would be eligible for tax credits.  The bill, however, is a little light on details ....

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Sunday, February 19, 2023
PILOT for Real Property Tax
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2685 Views :: Honolulu County, Energy, Agriculture, Tax Credits, Taxes

... The owner in the previous year paid $30,154 in property tax and got a bill for $835,710, resulting in an extremely unhappy owner ....

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Sunday, February 12, 2023
Get Out, Evil!  Stay In, Good Fortune!
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1464 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Taxes

... Japanese celebrate a festival known as Setsubun.  While there are regional variations on how to celebrate it, many of them involve roasted beans and an Oni, or demon ....

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Sunday, February 5, 2023
Did You Meet Your Goals This Year? – Pff, We Don’t Care
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1314 Views :: Hawaii State Government

... Our Legislature’s 2023 session is definitely cranked up now ....

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Sunday, January 29, 2023
What’s In the Governor’s Bill Package
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1425 Views :: Taxes

... SB 1347 / HB 1049, designated GOV-01, aims to give broad tax relief to pretty much everyone in Hawaii. It does this by juicing up several credits already on the books, giving a significant boost to the standard deduction, and doubling the personal exemption amount. ...

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Sunday, January 22, 2023
Should We Lower Taxes?
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1362 Views :: Taxes

... convince me that tax cuts are not advisable ....

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Sunday, January 15, 2023
More Temporary Tax Fixes Considered
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1329 Views :: Taxes

... We need fixes.  Not the temporary kind ....

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Sunday, January 8, 2023
Tax Word Find
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1306 Views :: Taxes

... the New Year is off and running and we are quaking in our boots waiting for our Legislature to reconvene, here are some of the ideas that we have been following ....

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Sunday, January 1, 2023
Lives Matter
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1677 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Hawaii Statistics

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

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Sunday, December 25, 2022
Earning a Procurement Exemption
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1727 Views :: Ethics, Tourism

“...You’re going to have to earn something like that....”

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Sunday, December 18, 2022
What It Takes to Spend $600M on Housing in Three Years
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1834 Views :: DHHL, Development

... Otherwise, the money goes back to the general fund ....

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Sunday, December 11, 2022
New Administration’s Tax Priorities
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2173 Views :: Taxes

... Green's top priorities for his first 100 days in office ....

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Sunday, December 4, 2022
Ridicule, Violent Opposition, Acceptance: OHA and DLNR
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:33 PM :: 2492 Views :: Ethics, OHA

... Truth Goes Through Three Stages ....

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Sunday, December 4, 2022
Want to Fight Corruption?  Follow the Money
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2720 Views :: Education K-12, Ethics, OHA

... We, as taxpayers who are supplying the money, have the right to see where it goes. In real time, not several years later as seen in one nonprofit’s recent fight with the Department of Education ....

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Sunday, November 27, 2022
No, Boosting the Affordable Housing Fund Isn’t the Answer
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1828 Views :: Honolulu County, Development, Taxes

"... it is essentially a budgeting gimmick ...."

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Sunday, November 20, 2022
Cleaning House at OHA
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 3048 Views :: Ethics, OHA

... One thing we all need to remember is how we got to this point ....

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Sunday, November 13, 2022
Getting Permitting Out of Home Maintenance
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2098 Views :: Honolulu County, Development, Small Business

... a typical residential building permit application took 108 days to process, while one for a commercial project took 432 days ....

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Sunday, November 6, 2022
The Empty Homes Tax
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 2217 Views :: Development, Taxes, Tourism

... The idea seems to be gaining steam now since our federal court has struck down Honolulu’s recent ordinance clamping down on transient vacation rentals ....

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Sunday, October 30, 2022
“Dedicated Funding Source”?  Nah
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1592 Views :: Hawaii State Government

... the “dedication” of the funding source is often porous ....

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Sunday, October 23, 2022
Yes, People Move Because of Taxes
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1957 Views :: Taxes

... we gained a few high-income individuals but lost more of those folks scraping to make ends meet ....

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Sunday, October 16, 2022
State Financial Condition Still Dismal
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1730 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Hawaii Statistics

... $37,000 of shortfall per taxpayer ....

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Sunday, October 9, 2022
Love-Hate Relationship with P3
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1768 Views :: Ethics, Development, Hawaii State Government

... The most recent and visible example is our iconic Aloha Stadium .... 

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Sunday, October 2, 2022
Three Years to Spend $600 Million
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1736 Views :: DHHL, Development

... On June 30, 2025, any of this money not contractually committed will drop back into our state general fund ....

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Sunday, September 25, 2022
Road Usage Charge Versus Carbon Tax
By Tom Yamachika @ 8:16 PM :: 1725 Views :: Environment, Taxes

... Hawaii Department of Transportation has been studying implementation of a Road Usage Charge ....

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Sunday, September 25, 2022
Our Kids Are Going Away
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1834 Views :: Education K-12, Hawaii Statistics, Cost of Living

... Not considering charter schools, enrollment dropped from 168,152 in 2018-19 to 156,518 in 2022-23, and it is projected to decrease further to 148,096 by 2027-28 ....

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Sunday, September 18, 2022
​Rolling With a Road Usage Charge
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1772 Views :: Taxes

... support grew when rental cars are charged a higher rate than residents ....

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Sunday, September 11, 2022
Blame for the Housing Crisis
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1529 Views :: Honolulu County, Development

... the average time to process a residential building permit application was 108 days, while a commercial project took 432 days ....

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Sunday, September 4, 2022
No. 1 In the World – In Tourist Taxes
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 3575 Views :: Hawaii Statistics, Taxes, Tourism

... Honolulu is 75% higher in taxes than the second most tourist-taxed city in the world ....

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Sunday, August 28, 2022
Dept. of Education Welcomes Two New $190K Hires
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 2037 Views :: Education K-12, Ethics, Labor

... in excess of $579,000 once fringe benefits are factored in ....

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Sunday, August 21, 2022
Can We Sack the GET?
By Tom Yamachika @ 5:00 AM :: 1536 Views :: Taxes

... Why don’t we just get rid of it? ....

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Sunday, August 14, 2022
A GE Tax Exemption for Food
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:39 AM :: 1833 Views :: Taxes, Cost of Living

... The three Democratic candidates for governor all support it ....

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Sunday, August 7, 2022
Addressing the Tax Crisis in Health Care
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1679 Views :: Health Care, Taxes

... According to the Hawaii Physician Shortage Crisis Task Force, taxes are one of the reason for the shortage ....

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Sunday, July 31, 2022
We Need an Emergency Declaration for Health Care
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1710 Views :: Health Care, COVID-19

... with the current licensing requirements in place the workers won’t be able to work here until they get through a bunch of bureaucratic red tape.  The state of emergency could be used to bypass the licensing requirements ....

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Sunday, July 24, 2022
With Long COVID Comes Long Emergency Powers
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1462 Views :: COVID-19

... In a case named For Our Rights vs. Ige, the Intermediate Court of Appeals held that there was nothing wrong with what the Administration did ....

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Sunday, July 17, 2022
It’s Tourism, Mooooo
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1751 Views :: Taxes, Tourism

... folks who seem to rank high on the milking list:  tourists....

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Sunday, July 10, 2022
Can the State Tax Itself?
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1818 Views :: Higher Education, Taxes

... Tax Department wanted get a piece of the UH research grants ....

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Sunday, July 3, 2022
It’s the Economy, Mooooo
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1661 Views :: Economy, Hawaii Statistics

... “2022’s Best and Worst State Economies.”  In that site, our humble little state had lots of reasons to be humble, coming in at a bottom-scraping 48th ....

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Sunday, June 26, 2022
Maui No Ka $$
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1667 Views :: Maui County, Taxes

... Maui County proposes to spend more than One Billion Dollars in this fiscal year, a 26% increase over last fiscal year ....

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Sunday, June 19, 2022
We’ve Got Bills – Lots of Them
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1513 Views :: Hawaii Statistics, Cost of Living

... how Hawaii compares on the ten most common household bills ....

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Sunday, June 12, 2022
General Excise Tax on Nonprofits
By Tom Yamachika @ 6:00 AM :: 1544 Views :: Taxes

... Whether it be a bake sale, benefit dinner, or a silent auction, any income from an activity the primary purpose for which is raising money is GET taxable ....

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