‘Teacher’ Akina gives Legislature a 'B-' during ride with ‘Perry & The Posse’

by Grassroot Institute of Hawaii, May 7, 2025

Hawaii’s 2025 Legislature officially ended its regularly scheduled business last week, and according to Grassroot President Keli‘i Akina, state lawmakers basically did pretty well.

“I’d give them a B minus,” he said on Wednesday during a visit with Hawaii’s most popular morning radio host Michael W. Perry, on the “Perry & The Posse” show on KSSK FM 92.3.

Akina said a major victory was that the Legislature preserved the historic state income tax cuts from 2024 while rejecting almost all of this session’s major tax-hike proposals — the main exception being its increasing of the state transient accommodations tax and extending it to cruise ships.

He said the Legislature also made gains in rolling back restrictive homebuilding regulations, including approving one bill, SB1296, that will allow most Lahaina residents in the area’s Special Management Area to rebuild without having to go through the burdensome SMA permitting process.

Unfortunately, he added, the bill does not cover property owners along Lahaina’s shorelines, so those folks, he said, are “paying mortgages on properties that don’t have buildings on them right now. They just can’t get help that they need to rebuild. They may have to look at other recourse, such as legal recourse.”

In general, Akina said, though the Legislature did a lot right, it still has a long way to go.

“We really have to help people be able to live here and afford the price of paradise, as you say. And so I would’ve liked to have seen more in terms of being able to fix the economy.”

TRANSCRIPT:

5-7-25 Keli‘i Akina with host Michael W. Perry on KSSK FM 92.3

Michael W. Perry: KSSK radio. Happy Wednesday to all. It is today that we find out what the teacher is going to give the Legislature for their grades for the semester. 

Our teacher in this case is a man who really knows what he’s doing. One of the smartest guys I know, Dr. Keli’i Akina from grassrootinstitute.org. Keli’i, how you doing this morning?

Keli’i Akina: Doing well, Michael, but you’re too kind. You are the most trusted voice in radio, and so I’m just honored to be here with you and your listeners today.

Perry: I just copy everything you write and I do just fine with that, as a matter of fact. No, you’re the guy and you gave me a rundown here on what you thought about the legislative session. Let’s start with housing reform, because that’s really important.

Akina: Well, I’ll give them honorable mention. There is so much regulation that has to be pared back that it’s not easy to make progress, but they did make some progress, and I’m really glad for that. 

One of the biggest things they did was create an easier pathway toward getting a permit. You know how in sports, there is a shot clock? Well, now, the Legislature says if you don’t get your permit in 60 days, you can actually go to an architect or an engineer and have them sign off on it, and that’s going to be terrific.

Perry: Love it. So we’ll give them honorable mention. Nice. OK, a good start. How about the tax hikes that failed?

Akina: That’s the good news. Sometimes you play offense, sometimes you play defense. This year, the good folks at Grassroots Institute and their friends in other organizations played defense, and we protected the biggest tax savings or the biggest tax decrease in Hawaii’s history, which the governor and the Legislature passed last year, and prevented some real weird stuff, like, the legislators wanted to increase taxes by adding an unemployment tax, and a carbon tax, and a wealth asset tax, and a capital gains tax, and a conveyance tax. I got to stop right there. But I want you to know that the people of Hawaii can be very proud of advocates because all of these attempts at increasing our taxes failed.

Perry: That is great. We protected the tax cut. Unfortunately, something called the green fee pass, Doctor.

Akina: Oh, my goodness. Hawaii already has the reputation for being one of the most expensive places to come and vacation. And on top of that, we pay our government more than anywhere else in the world. 

And we decided, our Legislature decided, to increase the tourist tax, the transient accommodation tax. That’s from 10.25% to 11%. That adds up, but worse, it gives us a black eye. People are already going elsewhere in the world, and now, they have another reason.

But we’re not only hurting tourists, who ultimately build our economy, we’re hurting our friends on the neighbor islands or anyone who travels on an island. For example, if you have medical needs and have to come to O‘ahu, you’re going to have to pay more for a hotel room now.

Perry: And by the way, the tax applies to cruise ships, which makes no sense, whatsoever. 

Akina: Oh, yes. That’s right.

Perry: Why is it we don’t exactly kill the golden goose, but we keep trying to tax it into intensive care most of the time?

Akina: That’s right. We’re choking the golden goose.

Perry: Yeah. OK. At least most of the major tax hikes failed. Let’s talk about Lahaina and rebuilding it. I understand a lot of the waivers are a good thing.

Akina: Well, I have to commend the governor because his executive order to help about 500 or 600 houses get rebuilt in the Lahaina area now became law. That’s a good thing, but the Legislature didn’t go far enough. There are a whole bunch of folks and businesses on the shoreline that have to go through an archaic shoreline-management application process.

Perry: Yikes.

Akina: And as a result, they’re paying mortgages on properties that don’t have buildings on them right now. They just can’t get help that they need to rebuild. They may have to look at other recourse, such as legal recourse. 

It just doesn’t make sense because there’s no rational reason to prevent them from rebuilding a similar property to the one they had already.

Perry: They had it a few years ago, so why can’t they have it again? 

Yeah. The folks on the water, for them, they were using a problematic climate change model, which is just garbage in, garbage out in a computer. But how about letting the people on the water take the risk if they want to go back on the water? Wouldn’t that be nice? Barack Obama lives on the water. He doesn’t seem to worry about it.

Akina: There are people also who’ve lost homes whose value now if they were to rebuild in the tiny portion of the lot that is allowed would be perhaps as small as 10% in some cases, if they’ve lost a lot of value.

Perry: There’s some other things, getting more people working with degree requirements loosening up, and pharmacists are getting a little help. Government accountability looks better this year as well. 

What would the overall grade be if you had to give a massive grade to the Legislature as a whole? And did they do Job 1, which was stop us from being priced out of paradise?

Akina: Well, I’d give them a B minus. I think they deserve at least an honorable mention for not going backward on the tax cut. It’s very important. And they certainly have helped us move in the right direction in terms of pairing back all those regulations that make it so expensive to build.

But they’ve got a long way to go. We really have to stop taxing tourism in a way that becomes a disincentive, and we really have to help people be able to live here and afford the price of paradise, as you say. And so I would’ve liked to have seen more in terms of being able to fix the economy.

Perry: OK. We’re going to send over the honorable mention trophy then to the Legislature with the traditional box of malassadas. Does that sound good?

Akina: That sounds great.

Perry: [chuckles] Dr. Keli’i Akina from Grassroot Institute. We suggest if you want to get a little dose of common sense about the state of Hawaii, grassrootinstitute.org is a great place to start. Have a great rest of the day, Doctor.

Akina: Michael, all over to you and all your listeners on KSSK.