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http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections...l-tax.html
This isn't exactly "news" in that "everyone knows about it"... the (not) surprising part is that the extra $2.8M/year is going into the general fund so that it can be spent on "whatever".
Media coverage is quick to point out that these fees are "less than elsewhere in the State", but they never bother to mention that Hawaii County has the most unpaved roads...
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Kalakoa, the media also don't point out that Hawaii County has the lowest per capita income in the state, thus making the local taxpayers less able to absorb increases. This is another money grab by Kenoi and the sheep on the Council. I fully expect this to go into the pockets and perks of the county employees and their unions. After showing some backbone on the property tax increase, Puna Makai rep Ilagan caved on this one. I am VERY disappointed in Greggor. He is rapidly losing support among people I know who trusted him to keep the county finances restrained.
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By some amazing coincidence, raises for HPD will cost about $3M:
http://hawaiitribune-herald.com/sections...llion.html
Same thing on Oahu, except that the property tax increase is still in "discussion".
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The money has to come from somewhere. I would rather have a license increase than a fuel tax increase, because the country areas would be paying the lion's share of that tax. People demand more and more services, costs of everything go up everywhere, but people want the bill to remain the same. Who are you going to elect to accomplish that, Merlin?
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quote:
Originally posted by PauHana
The money has to come from somewhere.
Try that explanation at the grocery store when your paycheck doesn't buy as much food as it did last month.
Try it with your boss, too -- obviously you deserve a raise, because everyone else got theirs, and "it has to come from somewhere" right?
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After showing some backbone on the property tax increase, Puna Makai rep Ilagan caved on this one. I am VERY disappointed in Greggor. He is rapidly losing support among people I know who trusted him to keep the county finances restrained.
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VERY DISAPPOINTING ,GREGGOR !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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When I started work fifty years ago minimum wage was $1.00 and you could buy twenty nickel candy bars with it. A movie ticket was fifty cents, so an hours work could take you and your girl to a movie. Now a candy bar is over a dollar and the movie costs $10.00 each. Those are the real inflation numbers, not the "cooked" numbers the Feds put out. If the minimum wage kept up with inflation it would be around $20.00, and it would be if we were honest with ourselves, but that's another topic.
When the National Governments print money to pay for things they buy prices go up, and the people who cannot print money get stuck with those rising prices. I don't like it, I think it stinks, but it's like getting old, I don't know how to stop it.
Obama couldn't stop it if he wanted to,it's world wide, so don't expect a piddling County Government to be able to stem the tide.
Obama does not want to stop it, he is one of the people that gets first crack at the printed money before it gets into circulation and causes price inflation. Raising minimum wage wont help either, that would just finish off the economy. Wages would rise if business could afford it and there were more of them competing for the workers. The fiat money and centralized planning is a world wide problem and it will get all of us. Get the Government off our back, and stop printing money and we would do a whole lot better. Some people would even build roads.
Who builds the roads? Does Greggor build them? No, he and the council contracts it out to the lowest bidder, after taking a cut for government inefficiency and general scamming(probably about 50%) Why don't we just take our money and give it to the contractors and skip the middle man?
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quote:
Originally posted by afwjam
Who builds the roads? Does Greggor build them? No, he and the council contracts it out to the lowest bidder, after taking a cut for government inefficiency and general scamming(probably about 50%) Why don't we just take our money and give it to the contractors and skip the middle man?
The vast "private" subdivisions do exactly that.
Whether it's "more efficient" than government is another question entirely.
