Hawaii now is losing almost 1,000 long-time residents a month.  This has been going on for the past four years and state government is baffled as to why, but if you are a resident and stop and look around you can quickly see the reasons everywhere.

       Simply put, residents have been crowded out for tourism and are taxed beyond our capabilities to support the visitor industry. 

        In 1997 when I was on Governor Ben Cayetano’s Economic Revitalization Task Force (“ERTF”), Doc Buyers who was CEO of C. Brewer, one of the last “Big Five” corporations in Hawaii, which had been created from missionary families and owned tens of thousands of acres of land here talked about Hawaii’s “plantation mentality”.  He stated the government of Hawaii was the “Mother” to us, managing us in every aspect, while private industry was our “Father”, providing income and jobs so that we could have money and give to our mother; the State and County governments to provide services, health care, and jobs for folks who did not have the education or connections to work in the private sector.  He also said as many others did on the task force that tourism was Hawaii’s “economic engine”, our future and main resource for private sector jobs and taxation and we needed to protect and provide for it at all costs.

        So the ERTF went to the State Legislature and proposed a new Hawaii Tourism Authority (“HTA”) to assist the visitor industry and a new tax called the Trans Accommodation Tax (“TAT”) to pay for advertising and jobs to keep Hawaii beautiful and everything moving smoothly.  The ERTF also pushed for residents taxes to be reduced to give local folks more discretionary income, which would give people more dollars for consumerism and help fuel more local restaurants and retailers.  

In the 1998 legislative session, TAT and HTA were created, but unfortunately no tax breaks came for residents.  And that is how it has remained for the twenty-two years.  Every year there has been more pushes for on every level for tourism and we are now at over 10 million visitors a year.  We are so crowded on our beaches, parks, roads, that life gridlock is now constant everywhere. 

Yet with all this prosperity from tourist bodies the State and County governments still say they do not have enough money for basic fundamental infrastructure and services like roads, buses, sewers, and first responders.  Legislators and County mayors have not found a tax they haven’t liked and Hawaii residents pay some of the highest taxes in the nation, among them; state income and gas taxes.  We pay the highest electric kilowatt costs in the nation.  On Oahu we pay high sewer fees island wide, yet 62% of the island is still on cesspools.  The insidious general excise tax (“GET”) is imposed on everything including medicine and food.  If you are a small business whether you make a profit or not, the GET must be paid or fines as high as 60% can be made against the business or individual. 

 All this taxation and tourism have taken their tolls and local people have become tired and worn out.  Many have told me there is no future for their children or themselves.  No substantial jobs for their children outside of tourism and no safety nets at retirement as income and GET taxes get costly on a fixed income. 

So it appears, government is not for the local people of Hawaii, but only for an industry that controls our islands.   The bottom line for Hawaii is simple; there needs to be a realignment of priorities for government, the visitor industry is self sustaining now and can take care of itself so there needs to be an expansion of different job creation.  Maybe looking at Hawaii as a medical center/hub of Asia and the Pacific, or rebuilding the agriculture industry, as the world loves anything produced in Hawaii.  How about rebuilding our infrastructure, etc.  We need to move into the 21st century and finally leave the plantation mentality.

 Unfortunately, I don’t think government will do anything and it will be business as usual because it’s easier to maintain the same thoughts and structure then to change.  Change only happens when pain comes for most people and it is always hard to leave your “Mother”.