06-19-2009, 03:55 AM
I think the main reason why our budget is so bad is because we base our economy on tourism. And when the global recession happened...areas that based their economy on tourism fared the worst. People tend not to travel during a recession...instead they save what money they can and stay close to home. Most states have many sources of income to run state government. We don't have that many. Thats why 3 day furloughs here and only 1 day furloughs in other states. Without tourism...hawaii's government would shrink to levels of the 1950's.
Raising the GET is not a solution to the problem. Yes it raises the money needed to fill the holes in the budget...but at what cost? It taxes everybody in Hawaii (residents and tourists; rich and poor)ON EVERYTHING THEY BUY...and that will reduce tourism even more because we've priced ourselves higher than most tourists are willing to spend on a vacation and that will in turn make many small businesses fold. We would then have the destinction of being the most heavily taxed state in the nation which doesn't do much for attracting tourist dollars in itself. And it also doesn't help tourism much when you have some nut case in North Korea saying he's going to launch a ballistic missile towards Hawaii around the 4th of July!
I was a state employee for 30 years in Alaska. And during that time in the 1990's..the State of Alaska almost went belly up because they based their economy on oil and the price bottomed out so low that they forced all non essential state employees to 11 month contracts. It hurt...but we got through it. And I think that Hawaii state employees can do it also. It just takes alittle sacrifice.
Raising the GET is not a solution to the problem. Yes it raises the money needed to fill the holes in the budget...but at what cost? It taxes everybody in Hawaii (residents and tourists; rich and poor)ON EVERYTHING THEY BUY...and that will reduce tourism even more because we've priced ourselves higher than most tourists are willing to spend on a vacation and that will in turn make many small businesses fold. We would then have the destinction of being the most heavily taxed state in the nation which doesn't do much for attracting tourist dollars in itself. And it also doesn't help tourism much when you have some nut case in North Korea saying he's going to launch a ballistic missile towards Hawaii around the 4th of July!
I was a state employee for 30 years in Alaska. And during that time in the 1990's..the State of Alaska almost went belly up because they based their economy on oil and the price bottomed out so low that they forced all non essential state employees to 11 month contracts. It hurt...but we got through it. And I think that Hawaii state employees can do it also. It just takes alittle sacrifice.