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Entries for 'Keli'i Akina PhD'
Saturday, March 8, 2025 |
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Spreading Aloha Through Saying Goodbye
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 6:24 PM :: 591 Views :: Cost of Living
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“More Native Hawaiians flock to mainland cities and leave Hawaiʻi, citing high costs.”
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Wednesday, March 5, 2025 |
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Will Kōloa Rum Co. lawsuit be the nail in Jones Act coffin?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:00 AM :: 828 Views :: Jones Act
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... the act intentionally disadvantaged the ports of Hawaii and Alaska ....
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Saturday, February 22, 2025 |
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Political problems not the same as true emergencies
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 7:46 PM :: 770 Views :: Maui County, Ethics, Development, Hawaii State Government
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... You might not have realized this, but Hawaii residents are living in multiple, continual states of emergency ....
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Saturday, February 15, 2025 |
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If we're not careful, nearly everything will become "historic"
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 6:01 PM :: 696 Views :: Development
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... state law defines any building, structure, object, district, area or site over 50 years old as historic ....
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Sunday, February 9, 2025 |
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Don't tax me, bro!
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:16 AM :: 1032 Views :: Taxes
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“...So, how many tax hikes are they trying to pass this time?”
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Saturday, February 1, 2025 |
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Proposed "green fee" a reason for red flag
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 7:57 PM :: 762 Views :: Environment, Taxes, Tourism
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... Few ideas are as tenacious as the myth that we can make tourists pay for major programs without affecting locals ....
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Sunday, January 26, 2025 |
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Lowering our cost of living is worth cheering
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:36 AM :: 882 Views :: Taxes, Cost of Living
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... the governor’s state income tax cut — approved unanimously last year by the Legislature — will reduce our taxes by as much as 71% for some families ....
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Monday, January 20, 2025 |
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Do Lahaina recovery efforts hold lessons for LA?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:35 PM :: 625 Views :: Maui County, Development
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... over the past year, we’ve seen how bureaucratic hurdles can make it difficult to rebuild homes and businesses ....
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Saturday, January 18, 2025 |
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Vigilance key to protecting historic state income tax cut
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:51 AM :: 611 Views :: Taxes
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... Hawaii lawmakers might undermine some of the benefits of the tax cut by raising taxes elsewhere, “just kind of surreptitiously” ....
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Sunday, January 12, 2025 |
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Walk back our tax cuts? That would be a shame.
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:01 AM :: 817 Views :: Taxes
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... You might have noticed something a little different about your most recent paycheck ....
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Saturday, January 11, 2025 |
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OHA Trustees Swear to Uphold Two Constitutions
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:00 AM :: 575 Views :: Hawaii History, OHA
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... trustees of the Office of Hawaiian Affairs (OHA) were sworn in by Hawaiʻi Supreme Court Justice Todd Eddins ....
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Friday, January 10, 2025 |
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Is another great year too much to ask?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:36 PM :: 602 Views :: Health Care, Taxes, Cost of Living
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... a modest but workable list of policy resolutions for 2025 ....
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Saturday, January 4, 2025 |
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Not Even Beautiful Hawaii Is Immune to ‘Tax Flight’
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:17 PM :: 1140 Views :: Hawaii Statistics, Taxes
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... The Aloha State is finally facing the problem ....
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Saturday, December 21, 2024 |
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My wish list for Santa
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:26 PM :: 760 Views :: Development, Jones Act, Taxes, Cost of Living
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... a few requests for the people of Hawaii ....
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Saturday, December 14, 2024 |
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"Empty homes" tax deferral shows your voice matters
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:51 PM :: 1835 Views :: Honolulu County, Taxes, Cost of Living
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... the credit for this win goes to you, the people who got involved and made their voices heard ....
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Tuesday, December 10, 2024 |
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Hawaii’s continuous exodus could get a whole lot worse
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 12:26 AM :: 1209 Views :: Hawaii Statistics
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... 70% of 1,500 local workers interviewed are either planning to move away or considering it ....
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Sunday, December 8, 2024 |
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Dream home in paradise leads to 'total dismay'
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:44 PM :: 1874 Views :: Hawaii County , Ethics, Development
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... Kafkaesque issues that so far have been unresolvable ....
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Sunday, November 24, 2024 |
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Put "empty homes" tax proposal on pause
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 8:10 PM :: 1444 Views :: Honolulu County, Taxes, Cost of Living
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... the third time won’t be the charm ....
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Saturday, November 16, 2024 |
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I see people leaving
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:56 PM :: 2079 Views :: Development, Cost of Living
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... it could get worse ....
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Saturday, November 9, 2024 |
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Hawaii's permitting headaches: 'stories of anger and frustration'
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:50 PM :: 1527 Views :: Development, Cost of Living
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... these roadblocks hinder homebuilding, which fuels the ongoing housing crisis that impacts us all ....
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Friday, November 1, 2024 |
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4-3 Vote: OHA Trustees Decide not to seek Exemption from Sunshine Law
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:50 AM :: 1945 Views :: Ethics, OHA
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... The Board of Trustees voted not to pursue the exemption ....
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Sunday, October 27, 2024 |
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Hawaii's historic tax cut must be protected not because we want it, but because we need it
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:35 AM :: 1102 Views :: Taxes, Cost of Living
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... Hawaii’s lawmakers listened to the people and did the most effective thing they could to significantly lower our incredibly high cost of living ....
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Sunday, October 20, 2024 |
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Emergency: Stop Amending Building Codes
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:48 AM :: 1078 Views :: Development, Hawaii State Government
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... Gov. Green steps in where Legislature faltered ....
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Saturday, October 12, 2024 |
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Permitting nightmare on Big Island
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:04 PM :: 2004 Views :: Honolulu County, Development
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"That's not possible. If the building permit doesn’t have a final, you would not have issued me a remodeling permit.”
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Sunday, October 6, 2024 |
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To bee or not to bee?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 8:10 PM :: 1113 Views :: Hawaii County , Honolulu County, Agriculture
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... just as Hawai‘i County lawmakers were working on freeing the bees, the Honolulu County Council began making an unexpected beeline in the opposite direction ....
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Sunday, September 29, 2024 |
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Will rent stabilization reduce housing costs? Hardly.
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:50 AM :: 1403 Views :: Maui County, Development, Cost of Living
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... Price control will always have the same effect: scarcity, a distorted market and higher prices ....
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Monday, September 23, 2024 |
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Is Jones Act unconstitutional as it applies to Hawaii, Alaska?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:53 AM :: 1238 Views :: Jones Act
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... a new legal theory against the Jones Act ....
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Wednesday, September 18, 2024 |
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Healthy habits for a healthy economy
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:14 AM :: 994 Views :: Taxes
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... the largest personal income tax cut in state history ....
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Sunday, September 8, 2024 |
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“Everybody knows you’re probably going to die before you ever get to the top”
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 5:30 PM :: 1858 Views :: Maui County, Development, Small Business
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... Maui County’s extremely long wait times and high fees to obtain water meters and add fixtures ....
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Sunday, September 1, 2024 |
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Will Front Street become just a fond memory?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:58 AM :: 1923 Views :: Maui County, Development, Hawaii History, Small Business
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... Let the people who have lost their properties and are bravely committed to rebuilding do just that — and enable them to do it quickly ....
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Tuesday, August 27, 2024 |
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‘If it can happen in Hawaii, it can happen everywhere’
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:57 AM :: 2250 Views :: Development, Health Care, Taxes
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... legislative victories this year in the areas of taxation, housing, healthcare and other issues ....
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Saturday, August 17, 2024 |
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Empty homes tax haunts us again
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 10:18 PM :: 2329 Views :: Honolulu County, Taxes, Cost of Living
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... it’s important to differentiate between good intentions and good policy ....
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Sunday, August 11, 2024 |
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Doing what we can to Help our Maui Ohana
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 5:18 PM :: 1963 Views :: Maui County, Development
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... supporting policies that could speed up homebuilding and lighten the financial burden for the thousands of residents who lost their homes to the fires ....
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Sunday, August 4, 2024 |
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What Hawaii Businesses Really Need
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 6:52 AM :: 1047 Views :: Small Business
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... How much do Hawaii lawmakers really want to help businesses thrive? ....
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Sunday, July 28, 2024 |
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Regulations gone wrong
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:40 AM :: 1202 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Labor, Small Business
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... take a light-handed approach with occupational licensing ....
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Thursday, July 25, 2024 |
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Hawaii to Become one of the best states in terms of income tax?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:50 PM :: 1516 Views :: Hawaii Statistics, Taxes
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“ ... Hawaii goes from being the second worst to one of the best states in terms of taxation .... ”
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Sunday, July 21, 2024 |
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Rebuilding Lahaina: A breath of fresh air
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 5:05 PM :: 1075 Views :: Maui County, Development
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... All of these bills show that the Maui Council is making progress toward helping county residents find housing and rebuild their lives and businesses ....
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Wednesday, July 17, 2024 |
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The future’s so bright, I gotta wear shades
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 8:42 PM :: 898 Views :: Economy
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... a scholarly contradiction of the myth that population growth must lead to scarcity ....
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Tuesday, July 16, 2024 |
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Tax relief in Hawaii isn’t just affordable, it’s vital
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 9:43 PM :: 1097 Views :: Taxes
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... Hawaii Council of Revenues recently estimated it expects state tax revenues to total about $9.5 billion this year ....
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Sunday, July 7, 2024 |
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Hawaii's chance to expand housing freedom
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 8:55 PM :: 1119 Views :: Development, Cost of Living
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... severe restrictions on homebuilding have resulted in too few homes and some of the nation’s highest housing prices ....
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Sunday, June 30, 2024 |
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Freedom in Hawaii is having a moment
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:24 AM :: 1392 Views :: Development, Health Care, Small Business, Taxes
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... This year our freedoms were expanded with the passage by our state lawmakers of important legislation. Those expansions covered taxes, housing and healthcare ....
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Sunday, June 23, 2024 |
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Your Input Inspires Us
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:51 AM :: 1007 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Cost of Living
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... we don’t know what we don’t know ....
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Saturday, June 15, 2024 |
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Can Hawaii afford its new income tax cuts?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 6:24 PM :: 1184 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Taxes
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... Hawaii taxpayers are expected to save about $1.2 billion in 2030 ....
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Sunday, June 9, 2024 |
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Hawaii has a lot of room for new ideas
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 12:00 PM :: 987 Views :: Development, Taxes
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... staffers from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii in attendance at Gov. Josh Green's recent bill-signing ceremonies for historic tax cuts and housing reform ....
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Friday, June 7, 2024 |
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Blue Hawaii takes the plunge on tax cuts
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:01 PM :: 1114 Views :: Taxes
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... In a deep-blue bastion where seldom is heard a peep of pushback against tax hikes, Hawaii legislators surprised everybody last month by unanimously approving a bill that is being heralded as the biggest tax cut in state history ....
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Sunday, June 2, 2024 |
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Keeping more of your own money is a good thing
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:26 AM :: 1675 Views :: Taxes, Cost of Living
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... passing the biggest income tax cut in state history ....
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Sunday, May 26, 2024 |
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Targeting scapegoats affects us all
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:21 AM :: 1397 Views :: Kauai County, Small Business, Taxes, Tourism
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... One of the most persistent myths in Hawaii politics is that you can target a single group with a tax hike and not affect anyone else ....
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Tuesday, May 21, 2024 |
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GET exemption could be turning point in Hawaii healthcare crisis
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 5:48 AM :: 1541 Views :: Health Care, Taxes
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... This year, the Legislature finally listened to their pleas and passed SB1035 ....
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Saturday, May 11, 2024 |
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Defeating Bad Bills Also a Form of Winning
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 9:31 PM :: 1938 Views :: Hawaii State Government, Cost of Living
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... helping to defeat many measures that would have harmed Hawaii’s economy and added to our already high cost of living ....
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Friday, May 10, 2024 |
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Akina lauds legislative gains, but Hamada has reservations
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:35 AM :: 1809 Views :: Taxes
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... Akina said “the tax cuts are gonna be huge in terms of keeping money in the pockets of people starting next year” ....
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