Sam: "In the Judiciary area, there are costs to access the judicial system, the small claims court for example, filing fees with increases 5 to 10 times higher, such as marriage licenses and divorce papers, and health statistics will all be higher."

News: "Well, you've given me enough material here to write a book."

Sam: "That's only chapter one."

News: I think that the next chapter is going to be continued this November."

Sam: "Let me leave with this. There were two absolute good things from this session."

"One, the good news is there was more citizen awareness this session than any session in history, particularly on the tax issue. And secondly, it showed people from all islands had the ability to stand firm on this issue as did the State Senate and defeat, as the governor says, the most powerful and influential interests in the State of Hawaii."

News: "Thank you for your brief answer to my question Sam, see you at the convention!"

Hawaii Taxpayers # 1

As a matter of record, Lowell Kalapa of the Tax Foundation in his 4/19/98 commentary in his article at:

www.tfhawaii.org/cols/041998-1.html

enumerated the history of the highly regressive tax and spend mentality.

A recent report from the National Tax Foundation states that Hawaii ranks the highest in all 50 states in per capita tax burden. (See Graph)

State and local taxes take 14.4% of income compared to the national average of 11.5%.

Commenting on the 25% higher tax burden, a local Tax Foundation official said that figure debunks the theory that the state has a higher tax burden because it has to pay for schools. This comparison includes counties as well as state taxes where the counties pay for schooling, so there is a level playing field.

Other states are basically running more efficiently.

It points to a spending problem!

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