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Get thyself a Honda Ruckus. The ones we had on the mainland easily got 95mpg. Not much carrying space though. It's easy to get a scooter that gets 85mpg and can cruise at 60mph. Ride it when you can, and drive when you have to. I hate that our state has just about done away with the "moped" perks. I don't know if there are any more two wheeled vehicles that still are classified as mopeds. A moped doesn't have to be licensed, no license tags, insurance is optional, and you don't need a motorcycle license to ride one. You do, however, have to pass the annual safety inspection.
How about an electric bicycle? A conventional bicycle?
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Jon in Keaau/HPP
Posts: 3,218
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Good tip, birdmove, but with one of our few industries being construction I don't see Puna workers hauling lumber and tools on their bikes. Puna gets hit harder with these fuel and vehicle taxes, and benefits the least.
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HOTPE, you know they never raise taxes in large increments. That way people (like you) think it’s no big deal. Problem is they keep raising them little by little. $33 here, $15 there sounds tiny, but over the years it’s not.
That’s the insidiousness of withholding. If you had to pay the tax all at once, there would be a revolt.
I think withholding should be eliminated and the filing date for tax forms should be November 1st.
But that’s just me.
Puna: Our roosters crow first
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It all adds up.
These "little" taxes are rather insidious for the poor folk as everything they buy will go up in cost as a result. Everything is shipped around the island by truck.
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EightFingers, interesting idea. Then everyone (but the rich) gets to tell the kids "no Christmas this year, we have to pay for our wars and juicy government contracts".
Even better: the federal government no longer gets to collect taxes directly. Each state votes and decides on how much and what they will contribute to, and which programs they will participate in.
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Hawaii has the lowest unemployment in the country and your average joe drives around in a monstrous gas guzzler. If taxes can't be raised now, then when?
As for "one-party government", was I just dreaming when we had a Republican governor a few years back?
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Between 2003 and 2010, a Republican held the governorship, but Democrats controlled both chambers of the state legislature.
You were't dreaming...
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PaulW,
First of all, I think government can do a lot of good things that private interests can't or won't. Taxes can be good.
Second, just because people are hypothetically improving their circumstances doesn't mean tax rates should automatically go up.
Third, we both know many jobs being created are lower level service jobs, and most of the employed are working harder for less. Those are the people that would bear the brunt of the fuel/registration/tax hikes.
Please bring back the higher marginal tax rates, instead of working the dwindling middle class to death. Rockefeller made his fortune under a 90% top marginal rate!
ETA: most people in my neighborhood have to drive "gas guzzlers" because they live on unpaved roads. They also put a lot of gas into generators and still pay the fuel tax. They are not rich.
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"Rockefeller made his fortune under a 90% top marginal rate!" Actually he made much of his fortune before income taxes arrived.
(Revenue Act of 1913, levying a 1% tax on net personal incomes above $3,000, with a 6% surtax on incomes above $500,000.)
Monstrous gas guzzlers are about all that is available. You cannot buy small cars anymore, Toyota RAV 4 use to be a small SUV over the years it has become as big as a Buick. Imagine if they applied the advances in efficiency to smaller cars. Less pollution, more space on the highways, less wear and tear on the highways.
If the demand for fuel was cut in half prices would decline by a third, so a dollar a gallon tax would not affect the cost we pay today and the roads and bridges would be in much better shape.
Everyone pays fuel taxes, if your stuff is delivered then FexEx, or the pizza delivery includes the tax in the cost.
