Entries for 'Tom Yamachika'

...the landscape here is filled with complexity and disparities between transportation industries....

...our state is underutilizing this money on a consistent, year-to-year basis....

...spurred by the announced plans of Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders to enact a tax on wealth....

...the fee is collected only on shipments by water....

...Who’s going to pay all these attorneys? They don’t work for free....

... which horse do you think finished pulling the wagon first? ....

...the Motion Picture, Digital Media, and Film Production income tax credit....

...In the news recently was a story about business and licensing fees actually going down....

...We need this to stop....

...the Honolulu City Council is considering Bill 25, which would add numerous energy conservation requirements for any residential dwelling that is new or remodeled....

...We, among many others, have long warned that if government squeezes our population too hard with taxes, regulations, and other impediments, people will vote. Not necessarily at the ballot box, but with their feet.... 

...A recent working paper released by the University of Hawaii Economic Research Organization, or UHERO, collects and reports hard data on the effects of the Jones Act....

...taxes that have ballooned over the years....

...Some of the requirements contradict themselves....

...the taxes that have changed the most dramatically in the past 30 years....

...Criminal laws are still in force, even as to Hawaiian protesters demonstrating on Hawaiian home lands....

...Leadership entails not only planning for possible obstructions to your chosen plan of action, but also having the resolve to follow through with your plan....

...The ability to drive a car is a privilege, not a right.... 

...Withholding is making someone who isn’t liable for tax, but who pays money to someone who is, responsible for collecting and paying the tax to the government.... 

...attempt by a government agency to shroud its operations in the shadows....

...Stop shooting the messenger and concentrate on cleaning house!....

...we are starting to see laws passed in the 2019 Legislature take effect....

...It pains me to read stories of people who lost their homes after being told that they didn’t have to pay back their mortgages because the laws under which they were made were invalid in Hawaii....

... a vacant home fee of 5% or 10% ....

...Recently, we have been getting lots of news about our economy here in the islands, and none of it has been good....

...“Look. We’ve issued four audit reports on the program...."

...the Education Institute of Hawaii that wants to see the general ledger for the whole Department of Education....

...DOTAX justified the shroud of darkness surrounding its revenue projections with a theory, derived from federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) law, called “deliberative process privilege.”....

...A long time ago the Tax Foundation of Hawaii sued the State....

...the law’s discrimination against nonresidents was prohibited by a part of the U.S. Constitution that the deputy attorney general didn’t consider.  “Oops,” the deputy said....

... We control the purse strings, so we said no to a lot of their money. They reversed some of their decisions. We gave them some money. So the tension worked ....

... Department of Land and Natural Resources is doing a reforestation project in East Maui. It’s hired a vendor to certify the project for “carbon credits.” Why are they doing that if we don’t even have a carbon tax ....

...OHA assets cannot be shielded from accountability (to both the Trustees and the general public) simply by tossing them into LLCs....

...they just make a list of the projects and call them “deferred maintenance”....

...No, that isn’t a cuss word. It’s just the facts, ma’am....

...our legislature has a dogged focus on new taxes....

...Before the ink was dry on those judgments, the Department of Taxation produced additional assessments against the taxpayers, this time on car rental commissions....

...if we think it’s such a great idea, why don’t we apply it to state executives, judges, or legislators?....

"...Despite the rejection of the Supreme Court of Hawaii, our efforts were key in the legislature’s decision to drop the skim from 10% to 1% during the 2017 Special Session—this was a win for all taxpayers in this State...."

"SB 1474 Senate Draft 2 that proposes an increase in the GET now specifies '__ per cent or $ _____'"

...what we really need to do is fix the inefficiency....

...individuals, gritting and gnashing their teeth, scour through their financial records and begin the arduous process.... 

...If an eligible person deposits money into the account, a sponsor such as a government agency matches the deposit....

...The auditor found that they have lots of money lying around. More than $120 million in accounts that haven’t been even touched for five years....

...creative tax-related bills at our legislature....

...This year, our legislature once again is poised to consider revenue raising – namely, taxes in new and creative ways....

...Recently, we have heard the term “congestion pricing” bandied about as a way of improving traffic congestion here, and of raising more money....

...In a budget briefing at the legislature at about this time last year, Department of Education officials reported that their backlog of repair and maintenance jobs was $293 million, and they were patting themselves on the back because it was a significant drop from the $392 million reported in 2010....

...Today, we examine “zero-based budgeting,” an idea that has been around for a while but was recently championed by House Finance Chair Sylvia Luke....  

... the agencies are supposed to come up with a “variance report” that is supposed to list how much they were budgeted, how much was spent, and a narrative explanation for any significant difference ....