Entries for 'Tom Yamachika'

... There have been a lot of sharp words in the news lately ....

... Bill 46 (2024) is the current version moving forward in the Council. ...

... employees were required to go to their principal’s office and sign a promissory note ....

... the discussion there is almost entirely focused on taxes ....

... employees at our State, and the Department of Taxation in particular, have a lot of immunity too ....

... I expect the Department’s bill to resurface in the 2025 legislative session ....

... it provides a basis for the courts to get involved if there is some question as to the legitimacy of any fee or tax ....

... a formula that exists in the laws of Hawaii, California, and several other states ....

... If you can’t get insurance on the unit, you can’t get financing ....

... an Office of the Legislative Analyst that is supposed to come up with revenue estimates for significant tax and spending bills ....

“You have to learn the rules of the game. And then you have to play better than anyone else.”

... a memo went out from DoE central office to all schools directing them NOT to apply for any of the funding ....

... For those of you who pay GET, here’s a quick quiz....

... the largest tax cut in Hawaii’s history ....

... Recently, Governor Green, without much fanfare, signed into law a number of bills that had been proposed by the Department of Taxation ....

... Intent to Veto: HB 1800, which is the state’s budget bill, and HB 40, which is the bill that puts $300 million into our rainy day fund and $135 million into the pension accumulation fund .... 

... Here are some of the traps I’ve seen ....

... there is now, government-wide, about a 30% vacancy rate in the number of authorized positions ....

... House Finance was persuaded to resurrect SB 1035.  It then went to Conference Committee, and it came up with a version that both houses then passed ....

... premiums are rising at astronomical rates ....

... secret instructions from the Director of Taxation to his staff ....

... DoTax claims Administrative Directives are for “Internal Use” and are not to be disclosed to the public ....

... a significant tax reform which has been long overdue ....

... “Good riddance!” ....

... At the end of this month, the Legislature wraps up and we see what gets sent to Gov. Green’s desk for signature or veto ....

... I became convinced that the proceedings, or at least this part of them, were prearranged ....

... ThinkTech has fallen victim to a phenomenon that has plagued many nonprofits including the Tax Foundation of Hawaii:  a drop in donor funding ....

... This is an issue here in Hawaii because our individual income tax rates can go up to 11%, second highest in the nation ....

... HB 1675: GET exemption for medical services paid for by Medicare, Medicaid, and TRICARE ....

... some bills replace a current tax rate with a blank.  Or several blanks.  Those are scary because you don’t know what our lawmakers are thinking of putting in there ....

... there are bills advancing that would, if enacted, fundamentally change how Hawaii’s estate tax works ....

... One state made the top five on all lists ....

... Here’s how the strategy works ....

... trampling on taxpayers’ rights ....

... The Counties all oppose this bill ....

... since 2007, not one thin dime has been spent out of the school impact fees collected ....

... the process to separate the wheat from the proverbial chaff has begun ....

... ultra-wealthy oligarchs, bad actors, and others are seeing us—the United States—as a haven where they can park money or assets in entities, like limited liability companies ....

... In the 2023 legislative session, that legislation was amended beyond recognition in both the House and Senate ....

... It isn’t very far into the new year, but already the tax hike proposals have begun ....

... remedy the consequences of some other folks who dropped the ball ....

... A number of restaurants are in a pinch recently.  Here’s what happened to them ....

... Honolulu consumers will be subjected to a double whammy next year ....

... the Department of Education approached the Department of Budget and Finance with a list of about $900 million in projects that it didn’t think it could move before the funding for the project ran out of time ....

 ... The names of the two gorillas are ERS and EUTF ....

... Are we going to put more pressure on our taxpayer base to dig into their pockets ever more deeply? ....

... you as a taxpayer can never really know, but you can protect yourself ....

... Claimants who want a distribution from the fund agree not to sue the fund contributors ....

“... It’s absurd, the socialist mentality, they think they own the land ....”

... Green suspended the General Excise Tax as it related to vendors involved in the design, construction, sale, lease, or financing of housing projects designed to provide rapid relief to the homeless ....