by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D. | Oct 26, 2018 | Education, Featured, President's Column, Website
Last week’s action by the Hawaii Supreme Court to boot the “education tax” proposal from the Nov. 6 ballot was a victory for accountable government and the democratic process. Had it been approved by the voters, it would have authorized the state to tax real property...
by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D. | Oct 19, 2018 | Accountability, Cost of Living, Education, Featured, President's Column, Taxes, Website
When even a Hawaii Supreme Court Justice isn’t sure who is supposed to pay a new tax, you know you have a confusing ballot measure. On Thursday, Hawaii’s highest court heard the counties’ arguments against the wording of the proposed state constitutional amendment...
by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D. | Oct 16, 2018 | Government Waste, President's Column, Rail, Website
A few years ago, I did an interview for our “E Hana Kakou” show with LaVonda Atkinson, a cost engineer and whistleblower on a San Francisco project that extended part of that city’s existing subway by two miles — “at a billion dollars a mile.” After looking over the...
by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D. | Oct 5, 2018 | Accountability, Education, Featured, President's Column, Taxes
Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet — proof that he wasn’t a lawyer … or a politician. Either of them would tell you that a “surcharge” smells a lot better to voters than a “tax.” And that’s one of the problems with the ballot measure...
by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D. | Sep 29, 2018 | Accountability, Budget, Pension, President's Column, Taxes, Unions, Website
They call it the first law of holes, and the principle is simple: When you’re in a hole, stop digging. If only we could apply this to Hawaii’s public pension crisis. When it comes to the state’s unfunded pension liabilities, there’s broad agreement that it’s a...
by Keli'i Akina, Ph.D. | Sep 25, 2018 | Education, Featured, President's Column, Property, Taxes
Of all the questions that surround the Nov. 6 “education tax” ballot measure, the most important may be the one that has been asked the least: How much? How much is this going to cost me personally? How much will it cost our economy? How much is the tax going to be?...
