Last week we mentioned that our Legislature was considering several bills that would 补诲诲听increases or surcharges to the Hawaii General Excise Tax. This week we will talk about聽what those bills propose to do, and provide bill numbers so those of you who are so inclined can聽track their progress. In no special order, here they are!

鈥 Rail for Honolulu: , , and would make the existing Honolulu county聽surcharge on the GET permanent. would extend it until an unspecified (blank) date.

The Senate held hearings on SB 19 and, after listening to tales of woe and an impassioned plea聽from Mayor Kirk Caldwell and HART鈥檚 executive director, Dan Grabauskas, advanced the bill聽but watered it down slightly to a 25-year extension of the surcharge instead of a permanent one.

There are still a few bills left that affect the General Excise Tax.

DonkeyHotey/flickr.com

HB 337 was not heard by its first House committee and is headed to the cutting room floor. The聽other House bills were referred only to one committee, and are still alive.

鈥 And let鈥檚 not forget the other counties: and , a measure submitted by the聽Hawaii Council of Mayors, would allow other counties to enact a surcharge on the GET, up to聽1 percent, which they could use without restriction. The House bill was referred to only one聽committee. SB 426 was referred to three committees and died. would have accomplished the聽same thing except that 25 percent of the money would go to the state general fund. That bill wasn鈥檛聽heard either, and also died.

鈥 Oh, and there鈥檚 the Department of Education, too: would allow Honolulu to extend the rail surcharge聽at a 0.25 percent rate and would allow other counties to adopt a similar surcharge, and in addition聽would increase the GET rate to 4.25 percent with the 0.25 percent to fund the Department of Education. The聽bill was re-referred to only one committee.

鈥 Elder Care: and would add a long-term care surcharge of 0.5 percent onto聽our GET. (For those in Honolulu, it would add a second surcharge; those on other islands would聽get to experience it for the first time!) The surcharge would be used as a dedicated source of聽funding for a defined benefit plan that would pay $70 a day for up to a year for any 10-year聽residents needing long-term care. The amount of the benefit may be adjusted from time to time聽by the trustees of the plan, and the plan would pay out regardless of the income level of the聽recipient. The Senate moved its version of the bill, while the House version died in committee.
鈥 Poverty relief: proposed to increase the standard deduction, renter credit, and聽food/excise credit now provided in our income tax law to benefit lower income folks. The bill聽proposed to pay for the changes by increasing the wholesale GET rate from 0.5 percent to 1.0 percent. The聽Senate heard the bill but then shelved it. There is no House version.
鈥 Agriculture: would have increased the GET by one full percentage point, but 鈥渙nly鈥 for聽a two-year period, to provide a dedicated funding source for the acquisition of agricultural lands.

The idea was to buy up agricultural lands to make sure they remain in agriculture. The bill would聽set up a new trust fund that is supposed to be used only for that purpose. The House bill died in聽committee, and there is no Senate version.

As can be seen, there are still a number of bills in the legislative heap that would pile on to the聽GET. Which will make it to the end of the process? In part that may depend on how the public聽reacts to these measures. If you have a reaction and want to make it known to your lawmakers,聽now is a great time to do it.

Community Voices aims to encourage broad discussion on many topics of community interest. It鈥檚 kind of a cross between Letters to the Editor and op-eds. This is your space to talk about important issues or interesting people who are making a difference in our world. Column lengths should be no more than 800 words and we need a current photo of the author and a bio. We welcome video commentary and other multimedia formats. Send to news@civilbeat.org.聽The opinions and information expressed in Community Voices are solely those of the authors and not Civil Beat.

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