Friday, May 30, 2025
Hawai'i Free Press

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Entries for 'Keli'i Akina PhD'

Saturday, May 24, 2025
No, we don't have low property taxes
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 9:30 PM :: 619 Views :: Taxes

... county councils are setting property tax rates for the coming year ....

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Monday, May 19, 2025
Cleaning up Hawaii’s permitting mess
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 6:33 PM :: 579 Views :: Development

... A new report from the University of Hawai‘i Economic Research Organization shows that Hawaii permit delays in 2024 were at some of the worst levels ever ....

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Sunday, May 11, 2025
Grassroot: Akina gives Legislature a 'B-'
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 5:18 PM :: 762 Views :: Maui County, Development, Taxes

... SB1296 will allow most Lahaina residents in the area’s Special Management Area to rebuild without having to go through the burdensome SMA permitting process ....

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Sunday, May 11, 2025
Another chance to make things right
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:20 AM :: 1684 Views :: Judiciary, Police

... the police seize your car because someone stole it and used it in a crime ....

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Sunday, May 4, 2025
Legislature on a housing-reform streak
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:00 PM :: 814 Views :: Development, Land Use

... Bills that will help mitigate Hawaii’s housing crisis include ....

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Saturday, April 26, 2025
Resolutions a sign that legislators are listening
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:39 PM :: 864 Views :: Ethics, Development, Hawaii State Government

... fiscal notes and building codes ....

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Friday, April 25, 2025
Focus should be on job growth and progress, not more and more taxes
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:06 PM :: 632 Views :: Taxes

... Hawaii continues to suffer anemic economic growth — the second slowest in the country ....

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Monday, April 21, 2025
SB1296: Apply rebuilding waivers to all Lahaina fire victims
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 9:09 PM :: 797 Views :: Maui County, Development

...  SB1296 seeks to exempt buildings anywhere in Hawaii destroyed by a disaster from needing a Special Management Area permit to rebuild ....

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Sunday, April 13, 2025
WSJ: Lahaina's Lessons for Los Angeles
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:03 PM :: 1041 Views :: Maui County, Development

... how intractable regulations have delayed rebuilding in Lahaina ....

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Saturday, April 12, 2025
Why are "blankety blank" tax-hike bills even allowed?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:50 PM :: 939 Views :: Small Business, Taxes, Tourism

... In addition to the TAT-related bills — HB504 and SB1396 — our state legislators also are considering a big tax increase — via HB202 — on all Hawaii businesses through a stealthy redefining of what is considered an adequate reserve fund of the state's unemployment insurance program ....

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Saturday, April 5, 2025
Turns out you can fight city hall — and win!
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 7:29 PM :: 967 Views :: Hawaii County , Development

... Ausman sued Hawai‘i County’s Board of Appeals after finding himself in the strange position of owning a beach house in Milolii that he couldn’t live in or renovate ....

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Sunday, March 30, 2025
We can do more to help Hawaii businesses rebound
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:29 AM :: 1020 Views :: Economy, Small Business, COVID-19

... Hawaii’s anemic economic growth — the second slowest in the country — should be a sign ....

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Thursday, March 27, 2025
Tax hike on tourism would create ‘unintended consequences for all’
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 12:00 PM :: 1010 Views :: Taxes, Tourism

... For the third year in a row, Hawaii policymakers are considering a bill that suggests they believe tourists are an endless source of funds ....

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Saturday, March 22, 2025
Lahaina: Still waiting for permits
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:59 PM :: 1080 Views :: Maui County, Development, Land Use

... he’s paying a mortgage on an empty lot and watching his resources drain away while waiting for permits and approvals to rebuild ....

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Sunday, March 16, 2025
SB1278: Legislature poised to fix a state wrong?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:27 AM :: 773 Views :: Small Business, Taxes, COVID-19

... SB1278 would exempt from the state general excise tax any federal grants that Hawaii restaurants received during the COVID-19 lockdowns ....

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Thursday, March 13, 2025
Tax bills suggest obliviousness to our daily struggles
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:11 PM :: 702 Views :: Taxes, Cost of Living

... Let’s steer clear of tax hikes, instead focus on lowering costs ....

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Thursday, March 13, 2025
HB422: Let’s close the book on school impact fees
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 3:59 PM :: 618 Views :: Education K-12, Development

... HB422 would abolish the school impact fee program and transfer its balance to the School Facilities Special Fund ....

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Saturday, March 8, 2025
Spreading Aloha Through Saying Goodbye
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 6:24 PM :: 1081 Views :: Cost of Living

“More Native Hawaiians flock to mainland cities and leave Hawaiʻi, citing high costs.”

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Wednesday, March 5, 2025
Will Kōloa Rum Co. lawsuit be the nail in Jones Act coffin?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:00 AM :: 1131 Views :: Jones Act

... the act intentionally disadvantaged the ports of Hawaii and Alaska ....

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Saturday, February 22, 2025
Political problems not the same as true emergencies
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 7:46 PM :: 1257 Views :: Maui County, Ethics, Development, Hawaii State Government

... 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
If we're not careful, nearly everything will become "historic"
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 6:01 PM :: 924 Views :: Development

... 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
Don't tax me, bro!
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:16 AM :: 1268 Views :: Taxes

“...So, how many tax hikes are they trying to pass this time?”

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Saturday, February 1, 2025
Proposed "green fee" a reason for red flag
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 7:57 PM :: 1105 Views :: Environment, Taxes, Tourism

... 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
Lowering our cost of living is worth cheering
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:36 AM :: 1126 Views :: Taxes, Cost of Living

... 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
Do Lahaina recovery efforts hold lessons for LA?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:35 PM :: 919 Views :: Maui County, Development

... 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
Vigilance key to protecting historic state income tax cut
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:51 AM :: 777 Views :: Taxes

... 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
Walk back our tax cuts? That would be a shame.
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:01 AM :: 993 Views :: Taxes

... You might have noticed something a little different about your most recent paycheck ....

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Saturday, January 11, 2025
OHA Trustees Swear to Uphold Two Constitutions
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:00 AM :: 799 Views :: Hawaii History, OHA

... 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
Is another great year too much to ask?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:36 PM :: 888 Views :: Health Care, Taxes, Cost of Living

... a modest but workable list of policy resolutions for 2025 ....

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Saturday, January 4, 2025
Not Even Beautiful Hawaii Is Immune to ‘Tax Flight’
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:17 PM :: 1340 Views :: Hawaii Statistics, Taxes

... The Aloha State is finally facing the problem ....

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Saturday, December 21, 2024
My wish list for Santa
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:26 PM :: 1109 Views :: Development, Jones Act, Taxes, Cost of Living

... a few requests for the people of Hawaii ....

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Saturday, December 14, 2024
"Empty homes" tax deferral shows your voice matters
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:51 PM :: 2103 Views :: Honolulu County, Taxes, Cost of Living

... 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
Hawaii’s continuous exodus could get a whole lot worse
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 12:26 AM :: 1432 Views :: Hawaii Statistics

... 70% of 1,500 local workers interviewed are either planning to move away or considering it ....

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Sunday, December 8, 2024
Dream home in paradise leads to 'total dismay'
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:44 PM :: 2260 Views :: Hawaii County , Ethics, Development

... Kafkaesque issues that so far have been unresolvable ....

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Sunday, November 24, 2024
Put "empty homes" tax proposal on pause
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 8:10 PM :: 1699 Views :: Honolulu County, Taxes, Cost of Living

... the third time won’t be the charm ....

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Saturday, November 16, 2024
I see people leaving
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:56 PM :: 2322 Views :: Development, Cost of Living

... it could get worse ....

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Saturday, November 9, 2024
Hawaii's permitting headaches: 'stories of anger and frustration'
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:50 PM :: 1743 Views :: Development, Cost of Living

... these roadblocks hinder homebuilding, which fuels the ongoing housing crisis that impacts us all ....

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Friday, November 1, 2024
4-3 Vote: OHA Trustees Decide not to seek Exemption from Sunshine Law 
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 1:50 AM :: 2274 Views :: Ethics, OHA

... The Board of Trustees voted not to pursue the exemption ....

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Sunday, October 27, 2024
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 :: 1282 Views :: Taxes, Cost of Living

... 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
Emergency: Stop Amending Building Codes
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:48 AM :: 1301 Views :: Development, Hawaii State Government

... Gov. Green steps in where Legislature faltered ....

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Saturday, October 12, 2024
Permitting nightmare on Big Island
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 11:04 PM :: 2332 Views :: Honolulu County, Development

"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
To bee or not to bee?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 8:10 PM :: 1439 Views :: Hawaii County , Honolulu County, Agriculture

... 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
​Will rent stabilization reduce housing costs? Hardly.
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:50 AM :: 1684 Views :: Maui County, Development, Cost of Living

... Price control will always have the same effect: scarcity, a distorted market and higher prices ....

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Monday, September 23, 2024
Is Jones Act unconstitutional as it applies to Hawaii, Alaska?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 2:53 AM :: 1420 Views :: Jones Act

... a new legal theory against the Jones Act ....

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Wednesday, September 18, 2024
Healthy habits for a healthy economy
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:14 AM :: 1187 Views :: Taxes

... the largest personal income tax cut in state history ....

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Sunday, September 8, 2024
“Everybody knows you’re probably going to die before you ever get to the top”
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 5:30 PM :: 2070 Views :: Maui County, Development, Small Business

... 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
Will Front Street become just a fond memory?
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:58 AM :: 2280 Views :: Maui County, Development, Hawaii History, Small Business

... 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
‘If it can happen in Hawaii, it can happen everywhere’
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 4:57 AM :: 3358 Views :: Development, Health Care, Taxes

... legislative victories this year in the areas of taxation, housing, healthcare and other issues ....

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Saturday, August 17, 2024
Empty homes tax haunts us again
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 10:18 PM :: 3407 Views :: Honolulu County, Taxes, Cost of Living

... it’s important to differentiate between good intentions and good policy ....

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Sunday, August 11, 2024
Doing what we can to Help our Maui Ohana
By Keli'i Akina PhD @ 5:18 PM :: 3046 Views :: Maui County, Development

... 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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