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Legislative Office State Capitol Room 222 415 South Beretania St. Honolulu, HI 96813 Phone: 586-8420 Fax: 586-8426
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![]() Hawaii Tax Day Tea Parties Go Statewide The Hawaii Tax Day Tea Party is being held at the Hawaii State Capitol and elsewhere around the islands on April 15. The Tax Day Tea Party at the State Capitol will start at 4:00 pm and run to 7:00 pm in the rotunda and outside on the sidewalk near the Father Damien statue and flagpoles. Neighbor island tea parties are being planned for Hilo (starting at 4:00 pm) and Kahului, Maui (3:30 to 6:00 pm). Go to the Tax Day Tea Party website for more Hawaii information and links: http://taxdayteaparty.com/teaparty/hawaii/. The link to the new official local site for the event is http://www.overtaxedhawaii.com/. There are several other taxpayer protests planned for April, nationally and locally. The protests center around the already high tax burden ã especially ã on business and the expanded burden if the so-called Obama "stimulus" package advances. Several bills in the Hawaii State Legislature are being drafted to add new taxes or increase taxes and fees already in place. A number of groups have banded together and requested taxpayers send a tea bag to their Congress people on April 1. Additional information is available at HawaiiReporter.com, Small Business Hawaii (call Darlyn @ 396-1724). What would freedom be without protest?
Senator Slom Speaks on HB 444 and the Hawaii Superferry
Tax Bills Will Increase Costs for Everyone Dozens of tax increase bills crossed over from both the House and Senate on Thursday, March 12. Some are still alive as we head into the second crossover this coming Tuesday, April 14. Others like the GE Tax increase have stalled and are considered "dead". I voted "no" on all the tax and fee increase bills that came up for Third Reading in the Senate and will do the same to all House bills that make it to committee or final votes. Among the very nasty tax bills being considered are the following: SB 1346 - Increases the General Excise Tax to fund public education but exempts groceries, medical expenses and a portion of rent from the GE tax. This bill barely passed Third Reading in the Senate with 14 votes in favor, 5 against and 6 excused. SB 1678 ‚ The so-called "Streamline Tax" bill, which will tax all out-of-state Internet and mail order purchases. Passed out of the Senate 20 to 3 with 2 excused. SB1611 ‚ This proposes raising the following highway use taxes: liquid fuel by 10 cents per gallon; state vehicle regis-tration fee by $20; rental motor vehicle surcharge tax per-manently to $5 per day; and increase vehicle weight tax. Passed 23 to 2 with the minority voting "no". There are sev-eral other bills that I also voted "no" that raises only the rental vehicle surcharge. HB 1167 mirrors this bill. SB38 ‚ Increases the tobacco tax on products other than cigarettes from 40% to 60% of the wholesale price and de-posits 33.3% of the proceeds collected into the community health centers special fund. SB 199 - Sunsets and repeals all tax credits. SB1111 ‚ Increases the rate of the transient accommoda-tions tax beginning on July 1, 2009. SB 1230 - Authorizes a tax on individuals and entities that transfer a stock ownership interest in a legal entity that owns real property located in Hawaii. Some of the tax and fee increase bills that crossed over from the House include: HB 39 - adds a $5 surcharge to fees charged by state agencies for certain services. HB 560 - A new tax on liquor with funds going to new special fund for Veteran's Services. HB 1175 - Increasing the cigarette tax to 20 cents per cigarette. HB 1271 - a tax increase collected on each barrel of petro-leum product sold by a distributor. HB 1518 - Authorizes vehicle towing companies to add GET to owners who leave a vehicle unattended on private or public property. HB 1728 - Will allow administrative agencies the flexibility to increase fees. HB 1735 - Advances the date of filing of a general excise monthly tax return from the last day of the calendar month following the month in which the taxes accrue to the 20th day of that month to generate a one-time windfall in reve-nue due to earlier collection of taxes within the fiscal year. HB 1744 - Suspends the distribution of TAT revenues to the counties for 6 years. HB 1747 - Increases the income tax rate for income brackets of over $100,000. HB 1749 - Makes the insurance premium tax applicable to mutual benefit societies and health maintenance organizations. Provides for a graduated, escalating tax rate. What many legislators fail to realize is that all of the tax increases if passed have a very bad cumulative effect on individuals as well as businesses, organizations and visi-tors. It is bad enough that we have these tax increase pro-posals on the table. It will be worse if one or more of these pass and become law on top of the tax increases mandated by the State in the recent past as well as new ones being proposed by both the Federal and County governments. If anything, the state needs to do more belt tightening like families and small businesses finding new ways of funding or possibly cutting programs. Hawaii should not be among the most taxed states in the nation forever.
HEADLINE LINKS FROM HAWAIIREPORTER.COM
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