Saving money now is going to cost our children — and our grandchildren — billions of dollars. As part of the effort to address the state’s budget woes, intensified by the coronavirus lockdowns, Gov. David Ige last year suspended mandatory payments to the state’s Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF),
The commentary below was Keli’i Akina’s weekly “President’s Corner” column for Jan. 8, 2021. If you would like to have his columns emailed to you on a regular basis, please call 808-386-9047 or email info@grassrootinstitute.org. ______________ Wishing and hoping are fine themes for a movie or a pop song. For
If only it were possible to fill a stocking with economic freedom and leave lots of new jobs under the tree. Like everything else about 2020, this Christmas season has been quite different, and we at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii have had a lot of time to ponder our
If Benjamin Franklin had ever seen the Hawaii state budget, he’d have changed his famous quote to say that the only two things certain in life are debt and taxes. Especially these days, it’s as if local policymakers can think of nothing else to help Hawaii come to terms with
Hawaii’s unemployment insurance system has become a ticking time bomb that threatens Hawaii’s fiscal future. In the short run, it might still be possible to avert disaster through creative budgeting involving reduced government spending in other areas. In the long run, the problem is bound to return because of how the state’s unemployment insurance
How many individuals can boast of leaving a legacy for liberty? Last week, the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii lost its own Founding Father, Richard “Dick” Rowland. Dick started the Grassroot Institute nearly two decades ago, when it became clear that our state needed a strong and consistent voice to defend
Photo of Dick Rowland by Craig T. Kojima, courtesy of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser For many of us, Thanksgiving is a little different this year. But while the gatherings might be smaller or the menus changed, one thing remains the same: We are still full of thanks for the blessings we
For almost a whole year now, Hawaii businesses have been Charlie Brown, while our state government has played the role of Lucy. Whenever things are looking up, the state pulls away the football and local businesses end up on their backs. Ever since the COVID-19 lockdown was ordered in March,
Everyone talks about the need for a good economy, but few people stop to contemplate what that really means. On this week’s episode of my “Hawaii Together” program on ThinkTech Hawaii, I talked to Connor Boyack, president of the Libertas Institute in Utah, and recently named one of the most
Photo by Charley Myers While voters across the nation settled in to await the final results of their state elections, in Hawaii it wasn’t hard to predict that the outcome would be a victory for the status quo. After all, that is what happens when yours is virtually a one-party
Saving money now is going to cost our children — and our grandchildren — billions of dollars. As part of the effort to address the state’s budget woes, intensified by the coronavirus lockdowns, Gov. David Ige last year suspended mandatory payments to the state’s Employer-Union Health Benefits Trust Fund (EUTF),
The commentary below was Keli’i Akina’s weekly “President’s Corner” column for Jan. 8, 2021. If you would like to have his columns emailed to you on a regular basis, please call 808-386-9047 or email info@grassrootinstitute.org. ______________ Wishing and hoping are fine themes for a movie or a pop song. For
If only it were possible to fill a stocking with economic freedom and leave lots of new jobs under the tree. Like everything else about 2020, this Christmas season has been quite different, and we at the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii have had a lot of time to ponder our
If Benjamin Franklin had ever seen the Hawaii state budget, he’d have changed his famous quote to say that the only two things certain in life are debt and taxes. Especially these days, it’s as if local policymakers can think of nothing else to help Hawaii come to terms with
Hawaii’s unemployment insurance system has become a ticking time bomb that threatens Hawaii’s fiscal future. In the short run, it might still be possible to avert disaster through creative budgeting involving reduced government spending in other areas. In the long run, the problem is bound to return because of how the state’s unemployment insurance
How many individuals can boast of leaving a legacy for liberty? Last week, the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii lost its own Founding Father, Richard “Dick” Rowland. Dick started the Grassroot Institute nearly two decades ago, when it became clear that our state needed a strong and consistent voice to defend
Photo of Dick Rowland by Craig T. Kojima, courtesy of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser For many of us, Thanksgiving is a little different this year. But while the gatherings might be smaller or the menus changed, one thing remains the same: We are still full of thanks for the blessings we
For almost a whole year now, Hawaii businesses have been Charlie Brown, while our state government has played the role of Lucy. Whenever things are looking up, the state pulls away the football and local businesses end up on their backs. Ever since the COVID-19 lockdown was ordered in March,
Everyone talks about the need for a good economy, but few people stop to contemplate what that really means. On this week’s episode of my “Hawaii Together” program on ThinkTech Hawaii, I talked to Connor Boyack, president of the Libertas Institute in Utah, and recently named one of the most
Photo by Charley Myers While voters across the nation settled in to await the final results of their state elections, in Hawaii it wasn’t hard to predict that the outcome would be a victory for the status quo. After all, that is what happens when yours is virtually a one-party