Certain Hawaii taxpayers may soon have to pay-up to help balance the state’s budget. Alcohol drinkers, those with pensions, and plastic bag users won’t be asked to pay.
"It’s a no thrills budget, lean and mean all the way through," says Rep. Marcus Oshiro, (D) House Finance Chairman.
Friday night lawmakers passed through several controversial measures.
First, a bill that would temporarily lower state tax deductions and strip away general excise tax exemptions for some businesses including airlines and sub-contractors.
"It’s going to hurt the airlines, hurt shipping, ultimately going to hurt the consumer," says Sen. Sam Slom, (R) Minority Leader.
But, lawmakers did eliminate wording that would tax pensions.
"There was no pension tax in that measure and I think that was very important from the senate perspective," says Sen. David Ige, (D) Ways & Means Chairman.
Second, lawmakers raised the daily rental car surcharge to $7.50/day for the next fiscal year.
"That will be adding $60-million to help balance our budget," says Sen. Ige.
Third, lawmakers capped the amount of hotel room taxes distributed to the counties at $93-million. County Mayors say it’s a tough pill to swallow.
"This will affect us to the tune of approximately $5-million is what I’ve been told, I don’t know if that’s an exact, but that’s the approximate right now," says Honolulu Mayor Peter Carlisle.
"Given the fact it’s been reduced to $93-million in total TAT for all 4 counties, we’re going to see a $1.5 -$1.8-million reduction," says Big Island Mayor Billy Kenoi.
"We are going to make some adjustments here and see what we can do to make up the difference," says Kauai Mayor Bernard Carvalho.
Maui Mayor Alan Arakawa says "We would have preferred that the state not touch our TAT but now we must concentrate on working with each other so we can overcome the challenges that we all face."
Still Lawmakers are at odds whether these measures are enough to close the $1.3-billion projected deficit over the next two years.
"We have a balanced budget, we have a pretty good cash carry over balance in the next 2 years," says Rep. Oshiro.
"The way I look at the numbers on that budget it’s still not balanced and we still have a shortfall $100 million to 200 million," says Sen. Slom.
See the original article at: KHON2 Local News
